Silkie thread!

[AZChiknGoddess]

I took some pictures today of my small flock. I thought i would share them with you all.

Very nice!

 

[Half Moon Ranch]

I hate to even bring this up, but I've got a rooster (one of 4 Silkie roosters out of 5 straight run chicks) who is officially an evil @$#%&.
I have kept him in a separate run with his 2 brothers and he has been brutally attacking one of them on a daily basis and as of late, leaving his brother's feathers all over from the melee.
He is mean to me, mean to everyone else and I'm thinking about culling him tomorrow.
It breaks my heart to even think about this when I've raised him from a chick and he's now 9-1/2 months old, but I'm over his antics.
Should I even hesitate?

 

[chicken pickin]

I hate to even bring this up, but I've got a rooster (one of 4 Silkie roosters out of 5 straight run chicks) who is officially an evil @$#%&.
I have kept him in a separate run with his 2 brothers and he has been brutally attacking one of them on a daily basis and as of late, leaving his brother's feathers all over from the melee.
He is mean to me, mean to everyone else and I'm thinking about culling him tomorrow.
It breaks my heart to even think about this when I've raised him from a chick and he's now 9-1/2 months old, but I'm over his antics.
Should I even hesitate?

My Silkie cockerel isn't the nicest either. I hear most Silkies are very sweet natured, even the males, so I was a little upset when I hatched out 5 males and grew them out and a few weren't very nice and the male I ended up keeping is now 10months old and he charges at me almost daily and has pecked me very hard to leave marks. I currently do not let my kids go in with the Silkies because of him. I plan to wait it out over winter to see if his hormones calm down as he get older. If he doesn't change he will likely be culled.

 

[AZChiknGoddess]

My Silkie cockerel isn't the nicest either. I hear most Silkies are very sweet natured, even the males, so I was a little upset when I hatched out 5 males and grew them out and a few weren't very nice and the male I ended up keeping is now 10months old and he charges at me almost daily and has pecked me very hard to leave marks. I currently do not let my kids go in with the Silkies because of him. I plan to wait it out over winter to see if his hormones calm down as he get older. If he doesn't change he will likely be culled.

The most aggressive roosters I have had of all breeds have been Silkies. Cull, and do it fast. They don't get better. The attitude will breed in too.

 

[andreacroyle]

They are all so cute! How old are they? Do you have many roo's? Does everyone get along?



Super cute!! Is this a Roo?




Beautiful!!! What breed is this? Is this a roo? Sorry I keep asking. I am trying to be able to tell the difference.








Is that a perch? Do they use it. My roo just walks away from his perch

 

[andreacroyle]

I hate to even bring this up, but I've got a rooster (one of 4 Silkie roosters out of 5 straight run chicks) who is officially an evil @$#%&.
I have kept him in a separate run with his 2 brothers and he has been brutally attacking one of them on a daily basis and as of late, leaving his brother's feathers all over from the melee.
He is mean to me, mean to everyone else and I'm thinking about culling him tomorrow.
It breaks my heart to even think about this when I've raised him from a chick and he's now 9-1/2 months old, but I'm over his antics.
Should I even hesitate?

I am super super new to silkies, but i have ducks and geese. If this were my roo I would ask myself these questions since I did take the time to raise him this long.

- is he going through his hormonal teenage stage. ( i know most birds go through this stage where they are mean and try to hump everything)

-are they bored? do they have enough toys and stimulation in the run?

-do they have enough room? I found this awesome infographic on pinterest today that states an adult chicken should have at least 3sq ft of space. I will post the link on the bottom of the reply.

-are there females close by that he feels he is competing for?

-is he competing for food or something else?


When the hormones are flying around my duck coop and someone decides to get nasty, I separate them immediately. You can put a non-permanent fence up when they are out in the yard by using a few sticks and that plastic garden mesh to separate the meanie when your out there. you can use a dog crate as a temp coop (inside pred prof run or in your house).

I just bought an adult silkie roo ( I say adult because i dont know if he is 1 year or 10 years) 3 weeks ago. After reading a bunch on silkies and how they make great pets for kids I thought I couldnt go wrong. Well, the first thing he did when i put him out in the yard is run over to my special needs (doesnt walk well..basically hobbles) goose, chase her until she tripped and fell then jumped on top of her and scratched and pecked at her while she laid there screaming. It was horrific! I have to tell you that my goose is imprinted and lives inside with us as a house pet. I am slowly getting her used to the ducks and her mate but she is only is outside when we are watching her.

He has also chased my gander and pecked at him and all the muscovy ducks run from him. He is a terror and I HAVE put him in his own separate fence where he can see everyone but cant get them when we are outside with him.

he spends his mornings in our living room so his crows arent heard by my very close neighboors and his afternoons in the predator proof duck run separated by hardware mesh or out in the temp fence with us. We are building the new chickens a 6X12 tractor that is going to be split down the middle with hardware mesh so he can see the OBE hens but not hurt them. I got them to breed him with before i knew he was so mean.

However, I do want to add that he is a doll baby to humans. My son held him for 2.5 hours the first night we got him. We can hold him all day and he ....well he might be too scared to move, or maybe he just doesnt mind.

Good luck with your decision. you could try craig's list and try to re-home him. i see requests for roo's all the time.

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/213709944790945636/

 

[nayeli]

I hate to even bring this up, but I've got a rooster (one of 4 Silkie roosters out of 5 straight run chicks) who is officially an evil @$#%&.
I have kept him in a separate run with his 2 brothers and he has been brutally attacking one of them on a daily basis and as of late, leaving his brother's feathers all over from the melee.
He is mean to me, mean to everyone else and I'm thinking about culling him tomorrow.
It breaks my heart to even think about this when I've raised him from a chick and he's now 9-1/2 months old, but I'm over his antics.
Should I even hesitate?

I wouldn't! He could kill his brother! You also don't want to breed him, its been suggested it is genetic (not sure I 100% believe it because look at us) either way do you really want a mean roo that could kill one of your nice roos?

 

[Fancychooklady]

I wouldn't! He could kill his brother! You also don't want to breed him, its been suggested it is genetic (not sure I 100% believe it because look at us) either way do you really want a mean roo that could kill one of your nice roos?

I agree, there are way too many nice Roos out there looking for homes to be putting up with this guys attitude .

 

[darkbluespace]

My first 2 Silkies have hatched and I think I'm in love...

I have no idea what colors they are... maybe silver, and one has the chipmunk stripes but looks kind of silver too. They were still in the incubator today when the power went out for 5 hours so I got to really snuggle them!! There is just something special about them. I am feeling that spark like Silkies may be my new favorite chicken and I'm going to need some more eggs ; ) Still hoping to hatch some lavender!

 

[Sylvester017]

I hate to even bring this up, but I've got a rooster (one of 4 Silkie roosters out of 5 straight run chicks) who is officially an evil @$#%&.
I have kept him in a separate run with his 2 brothers and he has been brutally attacking one of them on a daily basis and as of late, leaving his brother's feathers all over from the melee.
He is mean to me, mean to everyone else and I'm thinking about culling him tomorrow.
It breaks my heart to even think about this when I've raised him from a chick and he's now 9-1/2 months old, but I'm over his antics.
Should I even hesitate?

I can only have 5 hens and no roos. I had a Silkie that was supposed to be a "pullet" but started crowing. We had to rehome him because he wouldn't shut up - the sweetest little guy but too noisy.

Later we reached our maximum of 5 hens but two Leghorns and a Marans went ballistic on the gentler breeds and one-by-one we rehomed the aggressive/mean hens to keep peace in the flock. They were good layers so blended nicely in an egg-seller's flock. I hated to lose good egg-layers but having a peaceful flock is so much nicer than dealing with mean or aggressive tempered birds. You breathe a sigh of relief after removing the troublemaker from the yard and never realized how disrupting one mean chicken can be to the whole yard.

From this experience I don't bother to isolate an aggressor - I immediately rehome (my DH won't eat even our mean chickens so they have to be rehomed!) I take more time to research for gentle non-combative breeds now before introducing new birds to our gentle-tempered flock. There are always exceptions to the rule but for the most part I found the bearded/muffed/crested/feather-footed breeds the least combative in a mixed flock - i.e. Silkies, Ameraucanas, EEs, Breda, Houdan, Polish, Sultans, Faverolles, Cochins, Araucanas, and we happened to like the Dominique when we had them. Dominant breeds that take advantage of non-combative breeds are the Mediterranean class fowl and many of the dual-purpose heritage breeds like the common RIRs, BRs, Legs, Wyans, Orps, 'Lorps, Marans, etc. We learned the hard way not to mix combative with non-combative breeds. If there's one bad apple we won't tolerate it for the peace and safety of the rest of the flock.

We allow flock politics and pecking order establishment because that's normal. But if feathers go flying or get pulled out, or claws/beaks start puncturing flesh, we put our foot down to that dangerous behavior. In the past we tried isolation and/or divided fences but once the flock integrated again we found the behavior would resume so now we don't fret - we just immediately rehome.

We grew attached to all of our chickens and it was heartbreaking when some of them didn't play nice and we had to remove/rehome them. But in the end we realized it was the best solution.