Silkie roo troubles

[Going Quackers]

My daughter has 6 silkies all raised together from chicks, she has a 50/50(so 3, roos, 3 pullets) they are all between 4mths and 4.5mths.

All of a sudden this week, two of the roos have starting ganging up on the one, to the point where they injured his head.

So where exactly do we go from here??

 

[enola]

Hormones are kicking in. They will probably need to be separated. . . .

 

[Araucana16]

I agree. You can't have that many roos in one group. It's very rare to have two are fine with each other. Pick one... I would personally find a new home for the aggressive ones and keep the one ganged up on, since I would not approve of a roo that hurt another roo being with my girls... personal preference.

If you daughter is as attached as I was when I was 10ish to my chickens, then I would keep the ganged up on roo with the three girls and hope for the best (if he's a jerk, put one of the others with the girls, and find the best one) and then keep the other two separate in their own pens where they can't see the other chickens. Roos can live like that pretty well. Not as happy as they could, but it's better than a stew pot. Maybe the two that you don't want in the flock can make good friends for each other, but I doubt it.

 

[Going Quackers]

hmm, well most told us that if raised together silkies were usually ok, mind you i was doubtful but straight run was all we could get. Yeah, sorta sitting here trying to figure out the best route. For now the hurt one is out, because the temp housing i have can really only accommodate one.

Yes, she's pretty attached to all of them, she's later teens but they've been raised by her from chicks. Very frustrating, that's why i don't like roos lol but she wanted silkies so badly.

 

[Araucana16]

I'm fourteen, and honestly, I could NEVER give up another chicken. The three that I had to give up a few years ago still tear me apart by just thinking of them.

I think once I establish my flock, I'll end up having to get a few straight run silkies too. *Shakes head.* Every time I bring up chickens, my best friend says : "You're gonna get a llama chicken, right?" For some odd reason, the fact that there name is not actually "llama chickens" doesn't seem to occur to her

I'll never hear the end of it if I don't buy a few. Sadly. I never really liked silkies much, they look like mops to me!

Well, they are certainly better off than other breeds... for example, getting straight run RIRs and wanting to keep the roos... well that would be a disaster!

Do you have any old extra dog crates, or maybe... *thinks.* I have these giant boxes in the basement since my mother took the liberty of renovating our kitchen (yes! more brooders for me!) For a few days, maybe even a week or two, I would feel comfortable in putting a silkie in there, as long as it's all decked out (straw, roost-you could just put a 2x4 through some holes in the sides of the box, bowls for food and water). Eventually you could make something like a 3x3 box w/ roost and a 5x3 run that leads outside for each of them. That wouldn't cost too much, maybe $80 for the both of them.

I'm ranting on and on so I'll stop talking now