silkie sexing

Yeah I'm probably going to get some easier sexing birds like EE's and just like one more silkie when I get rid of the extra Roos. Could two Roos also live happily with like 4 or five hens? There's five silkies at my local feed store and 3 are hens the other two Roos and they seem fine. I just wasn't sure


Oh no don't give up on silkies they're such wonderful birds!

Now while that ratio of cockerals isn't ideal, in my experience it really depends on the cockerals themselves. We had an amazing pair of silkie boys last year sweet as could be but they ended up fighting in our mixed flock BC there weren't enough silkie girls to share. Now I will note that at the time we also had one of SLW cockeral and two OEGB cockerals. Of course we knew the numbers weren't ideal and we did end up rehoming one of the OEGB cockerals and one of the silkies. Now if there weren't any other food besides the two and the boys were raised together they would probably be okay. It's something you would have to watch for stress in the pullets, broken feathers, the cockerals fighting etc etc.

We are very picky with the cockerals and roosters we keep. We won't keep boys that are rough on the hens and we also keep the boys that are most docile to each other. We are getting the numbers down in our flock but we do still plan to have 1-2 OEGB 2-3 English Orpingtons, 1-2 SLW, 1 cream legbar, and 1-2 silkies through winter with approximately 50 pullets and hens. That is a lot I'm aware but we also have two sides to our coop(which is an old milkhouse) and can make this or whatnot if needed. Our coop is also easily sized for 60+ large fowl birds and many of ours are bantams.

That being said we almost never have any scuffles or anything and the girls are all in good feather except those that are molting.

If you want to try and keep the boys around try it but also try and keep in mind who's your favorite but more importantly who's the best to the girls. I've read it but also from our experience it is hereditary as well and how they're treated. Once we can sex our boys we try not to handle them except for regular checks(these also help in case of having to move or handle them so they know you aren't going to kill them lol. Also if one of them turns aggressive towards you take it seriously.

Our silkies' biggest problem was that they only had 3 pullets between the two of them after the other cockerals took their girls away. 6 would be better than 5 and 8 would be better than six but the temperament is key. My two boys hatched together and were always together they just didn't share well. They were also polar opposites as far as their temperaments go, one once got into some tape when due to heat some tape let loose and he wanted to check it out duct tape head to toe he stood there rock solid while I removed it as gently as I could. That same boy adopted two older chicks after his favorite lady was taken by a predator and raised them until he died protecting another hen from a predator. I was devastated but so grateful to him. He was a very sweet too that liked attention. The other one has proven to also be a sweet roo since finding a new home and growing up some more but as he matured he did challenge me twice. He also was the one that didn't like to share lol as he was dominant. He is now best friends with a young girl and was even part of a pet parade. I believe he does share a larger number of girls with at least one other cockeral and possibly more than one. If you decide to keep two of them please let us know how they do.
 
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I'm not going to keep the two Roos just the buff one because I wanted to breed and he's pretty and I also planned on showing. My run is also not big enough for two roosters because I have a max amount of chickens at five for my city. I am keeping the buff roo and hen but wanted some for more egg production is the only reason I'm getting EE's I'm going to get many more silkies in the future don't worry lol :)
 
I was given this ridiculous little specimen by a couple who had hatched it "6-8 weeks ago," but wanted to be rid of it because it had begun to try to crow. (At 6-8 werks??!!!?? Hmmmm...) But, of course, once I saw it, I had no choice.

It thinks I am its mother, at this point. When I am out of sight, it cries so pitifully! If I am to get any sleep ay night, it has to be perched on my hip. Usually by morning, it is on my head.

I call the baby Blizzard.

Please forgive the photo quality. I have only my phone for a camera, and it has no flash.

Any idea whether that is "miss" or "master" Blizzard? I have heard nothing thay sounds even remotely like a crow. Blizzard is now about 9-12 weeks old, i guess.

Thank you so much!
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