Robin's chickens

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robinstull

robinstull

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Sep 2, 2016
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St. Peters Missouri
Hello all! I have four Sons and together we have enjoyed raising several different types of animals. But my ten-year-old, Caiah, is obsessed with getting a chicken for a pet! I didn't realize they would make good pets until I started researching about them and it sounds like a great match for him. We have a small backyard so I was looking for 1 or 2 silkie bantam hens. Also, they would be housed inside with outside time each day, thus the smaller breed. However when I look into ordering them they only come unsexed. Thinking about going to a chicken swap in Illinois but concerned an adult hen might not be friendly and not the experience we are looking for. Any ideas on how we could find a silkie Bantam hen that is friendly? So excited for our chicken experience, any advice would be greatly appreciated!
 
Hi Robin,
Welcome to the site and to the world of chickens. I'm afraid I can't help you with sexing your silkies as it's all a little new to me too but have you explored Seramas as another breed option? They're lovely little things and, from what I gather, a little easier to determine gender.
 
Hi :welcome

Glad you could join us here! Silkies are in general a gentle friendly breed so even if you got sexed adults they should be pretty easy to tame up. I would suggest that you get 2 as they do so much better with company of their own kind. I'm sure if you pop by one of the silkie threads keepers of them will be able to offer you advice about keeping them and taming them ~ https://www.backyardchickens.com/newsearch?search=Silkies#

Good luck and enjoy your time here on BYC :frow
 
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Hello from Kansas, Robin, and
welcome-byc.gif
! Great to have you aboard! Best of luck and enjoy your pet Silkie!
 
Welcome to BYC! It's great to have you.

Unfortunately sexing Silkies has been a long time trouble for folks who want them as pets. Mypetchicken does sell "sexed" Silkies, but they are more of an educated guess than anything. There are some places that sell mature hens, unfortunately these are generally very expensive. At this point, that's really the only other choice than getting MPCs "hopefully female" chicks or straight run chicks and rehoming cockerels. With that said, thanks to Silkies calm and friendly demeanor, a mature hen is likely to be able to be tamed just as much as any chick.
 
You may also want to explore "people with house chickens." The house pet movement gets larger every year. There is also a "show us your house ducks," thread.

My friend has had house pet chickens for over the past 25 years, different breeds but mostly silkies. Currently she has two mature serama hens, and a silkie hen.

Seramas generally get red combs earlier than larger breeds and can be sexed earlier than silkies. They originated in Malaysia to be house pets.
They are among the smallest breeds but" think" they are large birds.
 

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