Silkie thread!

[ChickenLover200]

I raise a few different breeds of bantams as well and I know not to even mix them beyond in the brooders. The crested breeds like my silkies and polish especially don't do well with other breeds. The huge beards and crests impede vision. The silkies can't fly like other breeds and have no way to get away from an attacker. When you get into stock with smaller crests and beards, then they might do ok. Silkies and polish often have vaulted skulls too and skull plates don't fully fuse and leave the brain exposed with just skin covering it. As you can see from pic below, it will show you why those breeds can be so delicate.

Interesting pic, thanks for sharing. That's a great illustration of why crested breeds can be more fragile than regular birds. I think it depends quite a lot on the situation. Generally speaking, I agree that Silkies ought to be kept away from confrontational or aggressive breeds and generally anything much bigger than they are. But I don't find there to be anything wrong with keeping them with smaller or similar sized, non-aggressive breeds of bantam. I've seen innumerable situations where this worked just fine - my own flock included. This occurrence with Carlos and Midwest had been the only aggression incident to occur between the Silkies and other breeds in the bantam pen over the past 2-3 years of housing them together. Granted now that I am going to be working largely with Silkies and since I want to add some more aggressive breeds to my bantam pen for the sake of variety, I'm drawing up designs for an additional bantam pen to house the Silkies and Booted Bantams (also a very gentle breed) separately. But in the case of a small flock, I personally have seen little issue when housing limited numbers of Silkies and mixed bantam breeds in the same coop and run, cocks and cockerels included. The biggest problem I've had is the roosting fowl pooping all over the poor Silkies at night.

I houhouse lots of different "bantam sized"/small breeds with the Silkies girls.

 

[ChickenLover200]

If I order straight run silkies and get a ton of cockerels, would it hurt to keep them together? Will they get aggressive like other roos?

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

Not all roosters are agressive as some people keep pens of just roosters so as long as u keep them together as they grow they should be fine together once they are older.

 

[QueenMisha]

If I order straight run silkies and get a ton of cockerels, would it hurt to keep them together? Will they get aggressive like other roos?

It's dependent on how much space they have and the individual birds. You could most likely keep them together, but you'd want to keep most of them separate from any pullets you recieve so that they do not harass the females. You'll want to give them plenty of space so that they can get away from each other if need be. It would be best to keep them visually separate from any pullets or hens, as being unable to see females will reduce the fighting that may occur. This set up is called a "bachelor pad" and works well for many people, for every breed from Silkies to Barred Rocks. Keep in mind that every so often you might get a stinker who refuses to leave the others alone; those ones will need to be removed or rehomed. I've noticed that hatchery stock Silkies tend to be a lot more aggressive than breeder stock birds, so keep that in mind when sourcing your order.

 

[ChickenLover200]

Not all roosters are agressive as some people keep pens of just roosters so as long as u keep them together as they grow they should be fine together once they are older.

If I order straight run silkies and get a ton of cockerels, would it hurt to keep them together? Will they get aggressive like other roos?

It's dependent on how much space they have and the individual birds. You could most likely keep them together, but you'd want to keep most of them separate from any pullets you recieve so that they do not harass the females. You'll want to give them plenty of space so that they can get away from each other if need be. It would be best to keep them visually separate from any pullets or hens, as being unable to see females will reduce the fighting that may occur. This set up is called a "bachelor pad" and works well for many people, for every breed from Silkies to Barred Rocks. Keep in mind that every so often you might get a stinker who refuses to leave the others alone; those ones will need to be removed or rehomed. I've noticed that hatchery stock Silkies tend to be a lot more aggressive than breeder stock birds, so keep that in mind when sourcing your order.

TTanks! Unfortunately, I can't do a "bachelor pad". I do have a coop that recently hahas been emptied. It used to house 3 Partridge Rock roosters. The run connects to a hen run (separated, but they can see each other). They seemed to get along OK, but I read somewhere that silkies roos aren't as aggressive as regular roos. Wasn't sure if that was true....

 

[Sylvester017]

Hi everyone!! We hatched out 5 silkies recently from 6 eggs which was an awesome surprise for us Here are some photos

They are all different colours (white, black, grey, patridge and a white-ish one but he has caramelly bits to him, not sure what colour exactly you could call him)

I handled them lots and they sleep on my lap! My favourite is my black chickie because she is the most inquisitive and always wants to be held

My Partridge girl turned out a real lady, graceful, regal, and quietly sweet.



Our Black girl is a pistol with comical personality and always on the move and getting into things as you can tell by cobweb debris in her "hair"

Why do you think Silkies roost Ina heap on the floor instead of on a roosting bar?

I wondered also and just guessed it might have something to do with having small feathered 5-toed feet - maybe more comfortable not to wrap their quilled toes around a perch? Don't know because they will use the perch during the day - but use the nestbox for a full nights roost.

I raise a few different breeds of bantams as well and I know not to even mix them beyond in the brooders. The crested breeds like my silkies and polish especially don't do well with other breeds. The huge beards and crests impede vision. The silkies can't fly like other breeds and have no way to get away from an attacker. When you get into stock with smaller crests and beards, then they might do ok. Silkies and polish often have vaulted skulls too and skull plates don't fully fuse and leave the brain exposed with just skin covering it. As you can see from pic below, it will show you why those breeds can be so delicate.

I have often posted this photo to show the degree of vaulting that can occur in Polish and Silkies. Some vaulting can vary in degrees and size but this photo is quite extreme. Hard for a vaulted bird like this to not get injured by other pecking aggressive birds - especially from large fowl breeds. After DH and I saw what a vaulted skull was we said we would never take the chance on getting a chick with vaulting. Our Silkies are just as fully crested without having this abnormality. Show breeders want a pretty show bird but I would not breed for this quality -- somewhat like the abnormal jaws of pug-faced snouts on Persian Cats which we bred but stopped decades ago, Bulldogs, Pugs, Boxers, Boston Terriers, etc. - lovely breeds but eventually the physical features get grotesquely out-of-hand and post many health risks to the well-being of the animal IMO.

 

[Fancychooklady]

If I order straight run silkies and get a ton of cockerels, would it hurt to keep them together? Will they get aggressive like other roos?

I have a ' bachelor ' pen. They split into little groups but don't bother each other .

 

[destiny_56085]

That same vault is also very sensitive to other stuff as well..... I've personally seen them affected by changes in temperature and barometric pressure. Many of those chicks have problems pipping and getting out of the shell. I've also had a couple chicks hatched with brains exposed and no skin even covering their heads.

 

[QueenMisha]

That same vault is also very sensitive to other stuff as well..... I've personally seen them affected by changes in temperature and barometric pressure. Many of those chicks have problems pipping and getting outnof the shell. I've also had a couple chicks hatched with brains exposef and no skin even covering their heads.

This discussion actually brought up something interesting in my recent Silkie hatches - most all of the mortality of my eggs has been occuring just prior to hatch; I've been getting a 75-90% hatch rate on average from my Silkie eggs, but of the ones which did not make it and which I autopsied, all had incredibly large vaulted skulls. Coming up maybe 1/8-1/6 of an inch off the head. I remember noting this originally, I'm not sure why I didn't find it stranger in the first place. Is there a Silkie version of the Cornish deleterious gene? Where they've been so overbred for characteristics like a large crest that the resulting impacts becomes semi-lethal or lethal to embryos? I checked my copy of Genetics of the Fowl to see if there was any info on it, but came up empty - only a small passage regarding the vaulted cranium of crested breeds but with little regards to the genetics of it.

I'm a huge genetics nerd so this is definitely a point of (somewhat morbid) interest for me.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Vaulted skulls and bigger beard muffs are by way of design. The breeders are simply breeding what people want, ' supply and demand '.
Unfortunately this is to the detriment of the bird, that ends up with limited sight ( if any ) and vulnerable to cerebral hemorrhage .
Occasionally I hatch a vaulted skull and I go to great lengths to find the right home for them. Preferably one that has no LF or little children.
Personally I prefer the beardless ones , they are more dynamic in their personality and less dependant on me.