Silkie Cockerel/Rooster Behavior

KikiDeAnime

Spooky
7 Years
Dec 29, 2017
4,683
11,353
617
Battle Ground, WA
So I picked up 4 Silkies yesterday and 2 were cockerels. They're all about 15 weeks old or so and both cockerels are related. They get along extremely well and love snuggling with each other.
We also now have 13 girls(Pullets & Hens) and I'm going to be getting 4 chicks next week so the cockerels will have plenty of hens later on. All chickens will be getting to free range twice a day with supervision.

I was wondering what behavior I should watch out for and what behavior is good.
Also when should both be getting fully grown spurs?

We only had 1 Silkie rooster one time but he was only around long enough to breed the hens before we had to get rid of him due to our old neighbors who hated him for no reason at all.

Silver:
Silkie Pic 01.jpg


Chocolate:
Silkie Pic 05.jpg
 
If they are brothers they will probably fight in my experience. Father and son will often work. The easiest option but not the cheapest is to house them separately with their own hens. This may not be practicable for you.
It can take over a year for a rooster to grow a proper set of spurs. Different breeds seem to develop at different rates. I've never kept Silkies so I don't know what's usual for them.
You will know when you've got problems because one will try to prevent the other from roosting in the coop. You may not see any fighting. Sometimes the more dominant just pecks at the other at roost time.
 
If they are brothers they will probably fight in my experience. Father and son will often work. The easiest option but not the cheapest is to house them separately with their own hens. This may not be practicable for you.
It can take over a year for a rooster to grow a proper set of spurs. Different breeds seem to develop at different rates. I've never kept Silkies so I don't know what's usual for them.
You will know when you've got problems because one will try to prevent the other from roosting in the coop. You may not see any fighting. Sometimes the more dominant just pecks at the other at roost time.
Well we once had 2 Polish roosters together with only 4 hens and we didn't realize until after we got rid of the first one because they never fought.
I'm fine with them fighting if its a rare thing and if there's no blood. I'm only keeping both to protect the hens. I will separate them if they fight too much. I hate roosters fighting but as long as they both have a pecking order, I'm fine with small harmless fights.
 

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