When i hatched silkie eggs for the first time this summer i thought that i would just keep the six or so girls i liked, then find homes for the others and any roosters. It all felt very simple at the time. i also ordered some sexed female silkies from mypetchicken. At this point, i have adopted out about 14 kids. But now i'm down to a core group of chicks i really like. i have 9 nine-week-olds and 3 eight-week-olds. Out of those, i think i have four that are looking roo-ish.
One big problem i'm having is integrating the 3 younger ones into the group. Two of them are very submissive and just put their heads down when approached. One of them tries to fight back, and has taken to pulling the wings on my favorite little grey girls (hey!). i have tried putting them all together several times, but the screams eventually get to me and i put the 3 younger ones in a hutch inside the pen. At night i have tried mixing them up - first everyone in the same hutch to sleep. Then as i see anyone doing too much head-pecking, they get put in the chick-n-barn to sleep. i've identified the five notorious head-peckers as mainly the ones i think are roos, and then one feisty girl (if i can even tell at this stage of the game). They all sleep fine together, but upon light of day, the head-peckers start pecking each other and i need to switch them out.
i also have two almost-adult EEs who get to come out several times a day and are kept separate from the silkies, and then three teeny seven-week-old frizzle/silkie/mille fleur (they are in a cage inside the pen). i guess i'm just writing this to vent. i think i took on too much. Having four separate groups is not what i imagined. i am fine with keeping the silkies away from the EEs for another two months until they are larger and better able to handle that introduction. But i'm not doing well emotionally with trying to integrate the two groups of silkies. i just hate to hear the screams of pain (or fear). i can't even imagine how i'll integrate those teeny weeny mille fleur mixes. Have thought about giving them away, but my husband thinks they're pretty.
Okay, last thing to mope about are ones who will be roosters. i would love to find them all great homes. My fallback position on that has been to take them to the local feed store, who will accept chickens, then keep them in their coop and sell them. But i was in there the other day, and they had two big Silkie roosters - they were both gorgeous! One was a chocolate brown (i have never seen that color). He was so pretty, with his big gnarly mulberry comb and long flappy wattles. And although the coop was perfectly nice and clean and roomy, i felt so bad that he had to be in there, waiting for someone to come adopt him. The idea of one of my birds sitting in there, wondering what he did wrong, is so sad.
i suppose if i had to do it all over again, i would have stuck with just ordering from mypetchicken.com (except that one of the silkies i did order from them, Lulu, is turning into a RooRoo). So, that's it. i'm done complaining for the week. Maybe i'll go back out to the coop and see if i can negotiate peace.
One big problem i'm having is integrating the 3 younger ones into the group. Two of them are very submissive and just put their heads down when approached. One of them tries to fight back, and has taken to pulling the wings on my favorite little grey girls (hey!). i have tried putting them all together several times, but the screams eventually get to me and i put the 3 younger ones in a hutch inside the pen. At night i have tried mixing them up - first everyone in the same hutch to sleep. Then as i see anyone doing too much head-pecking, they get put in the chick-n-barn to sleep. i've identified the five notorious head-peckers as mainly the ones i think are roos, and then one feisty girl (if i can even tell at this stage of the game). They all sleep fine together, but upon light of day, the head-peckers start pecking each other and i need to switch them out.
i also have two almost-adult EEs who get to come out several times a day and are kept separate from the silkies, and then three teeny seven-week-old frizzle/silkie/mille fleur (they are in a cage inside the pen). i guess i'm just writing this to vent. i think i took on too much. Having four separate groups is not what i imagined. i am fine with keeping the silkies away from the EEs for another two months until they are larger and better able to handle that introduction. But i'm not doing well emotionally with trying to integrate the two groups of silkies. i just hate to hear the screams of pain (or fear). i can't even imagine how i'll integrate those teeny weeny mille fleur mixes. Have thought about giving them away, but my husband thinks they're pretty.
Okay, last thing to mope about are ones who will be roosters. i would love to find them all great homes. My fallback position on that has been to take them to the local feed store, who will accept chickens, then keep them in their coop and sell them. But i was in there the other day, and they had two big Silkie roosters - they were both gorgeous! One was a chocolate brown (i have never seen that color). He was so pretty, with his big gnarly mulberry comb and long flappy wattles. And although the coop was perfectly nice and clean and roomy, i felt so bad that he had to be in there, waiting for someone to come adopt him. The idea of one of my birds sitting in there, wondering what he did wrong, is so sad.
i suppose if i had to do it all over again, i would have stuck with just ordering from mypetchicken.com (except that one of the silkies i did order from them, Lulu, is turning into a RooRoo). So, that's it. i'm done complaining for the week. Maybe i'll go back out to the coop and see if i can negotiate peace.
