Hello all silkie lovers! I have a silkie behavior question for you.
I have a lone silkie roo that is the only survivor from our mixed hatch that we did in April. He has been raised with all LF birds and he is fairly large and I would say about the same size as my LF Araucan pullet. He tries his best to mate with our Salmon Favorelle pullets and has some success with our Houdan pullet. We purchased a couple of banty cochins to add to the flock as we thought he might be more successful in his mating attempts with them. They have been in the flock for over 6 weeks now and he simply ignores them so that (so far) has been unsuccessful.
Now to my main question/observations: When the flock goes to roost in the evening, he is the last one "in bed". We built a platform in the house for him to perch on at night and he uses it but I have watched as they all roost and he is the last one in and he paces back and forth and round and round and looks like he wants up on the roosts with the big birds. The lowest rung of the ladder is probably knee high and he can't/won't jump up to it. We did catch him on it one night when we went to tuck in and thought he figured it out but have not found him there again.
Do you think he wants to roost with the big birds because he is lonely? I had hoped the banties would take to him and join him on his perch but they prefer the roost as well.
Should we make him a ladder that goes all the way to the ground so he can walk up? All suggestions, thoughts, ideas welcome. Thanks!
I have a lone silkie roo that is the only survivor from our mixed hatch that we did in April. He has been raised with all LF birds and he is fairly large and I would say about the same size as my LF Araucan pullet. He tries his best to mate with our Salmon Favorelle pullets and has some success with our Houdan pullet. We purchased a couple of banty cochins to add to the flock as we thought he might be more successful in his mating attempts with them. They have been in the flock for over 6 weeks now and he simply ignores them so that (so far) has been unsuccessful.
Now to my main question/observations: When the flock goes to roost in the evening, he is the last one "in bed". We built a platform in the house for him to perch on at night and he uses it but I have watched as they all roost and he is the last one in and he paces back and forth and round and round and looks like he wants up on the roosts with the big birds. The lowest rung of the ladder is probably knee high and he can't/won't jump up to it. We did catch him on it one night when we went to tuck in and thought he figured it out but have not found him there again.
Do you think he wants to roost with the big birds because he is lonely? I had hoped the banties would take to him and join him on his perch but they prefer the roost as well.
Should we make him a ladder that goes all the way to the ground so he can walk up? All suggestions, thoughts, ideas welcome. Thanks!
