Silkie Rooster help!!

[MrsHeeg]

I have a quick question I was wondering if somebody could help me out with. I have 5 chickens, all hatched in March. One is a silkie bantam and it was injured a few weeks ago so it's been recuperating on the enclosed porch. It's time to start getting it back outside, so I have it in the dog kennel beside the coop to get the others used to it again. During the time that it was on the porch, I came to realize it probably isn't a girl as I thought. It made a funny noise I could only attribute to a "crow". My concern is, I have one BR rooster and I'm concerned about putting the silkie back in with the others if he is indeed a roo. If he's starting to mature, will the BR be threatened by him? This seems laughable, as he's so fluffy and small but I don't want him being attacked if my BR doesn't want him there. Does anyone have any thoughts on this for me? Any help would be hugely appreciated! Thank you!

 

[sumi]

If your silkie is a roo you may have a problem. With so few hens to go round the BR roo will not be happy with competition, even if it's a small roo. A male is a male. If this is the case I'd suggest you either separate the silkie with his own hens or find one of your roosters a new home, or get more hens so balance it out a bit. Fingers crossed he is a she!

 

[sourland]

If he is indeed a rooster, he will more likely be threatened by the barred rock - especially now that he has been removed from his place in the flock due to injury. Monitor any reintroduction very carefully.

 

[aoxa]

I wish I could give you good feelings about this, but in my experience, the silkie rooster has to be kept separate from the barred rock rooster. My BR HATES.. and I mean HATES my silkie rooster. My silkie rooster was the top rooster until we moved in April. For weeks Steve (the silkie) was outcast from the flock. He would hide under a car engine at night in fear of being attacked. He lost a lot of feathers and was so ashamed that he stopped crowing.

I made him his own little silkie hut. His girls go in and out (as does he) of the fence but the entrances are too small for Jagger (barred rock) to get in and hurt him.

Steve has regained his composure and is crowing again. His feathers are finally all in place after a few months of this..

Hopefully your two boys can get along better than mine..

 

[MrsHeeg]

*Sigh* this is what I figured. Sad, because I really don't want to get rid of my silkie. Thank you all so much for your help!

 

[aoxa]

*Sigh* this is what I figured. Sad, because I really don't want to get rid of my silkie. Thank you all so much for your help!

 

I'm sorry You can try. If they grow up together it may be different.

 

[MrsHeeg]

We will probably give it a try. If the silkie hadn't gotten injured and had to be away from the rest of the flock I wouldn't be so concerned about it. But I know it's enough of a chore just reintroducing an injured chicken back in and now it might be reintroducing a rooster to another rooster!