Silkie thread!

[Sylvester017]

i have a mixed flock of 15 6 of which are silkies but little Freddie mac she would rather be with my big hens!!! my silver Wyandotte although not the biggest or oldest is the Alfa hen. idk if it makes a difference that I got all my chicks within 3 months of each other but they are all happy together!!!

My Silkies have moods. When my little Black is broody she terrorizes all the other hens in the flock with her Bitc*#*y behavior and everyone including the other Silkie avoids her like the plague. Once she's over her broody cycle she's back to being her spunky joyful self and the other fowl will toodle around with her again. She loves toodling with the very active large fowl Breda hen and they have chasing games whenever one finds a tidbit or insect ~ the other hens leave them alone to play their game of "keep away". However during rest times or casual foraging the 2 Silkies are back hanging out together.

BLACK SILKIE KEEPING UP WITH THE BLUE BREDA


BREDA AND SILKIE TAKING A BREAK AFTER PLAYING "KEEP AWAY" WITH A CRICKET THEY FOUND


THESE 2 SILKIES ARE USUALLY TOGETHER DURING REST TIMES OR CASUAL FORAGING


Wyandottes per MyPetChicken classifies Wyans as having a tendency toward domination so it's not a surprise that yours is becoming an alpha hen. Most of my dual purpose pullets got along well with the Silkies ~ even the assertive Leghorns and Marans ~ it was after the large fowl matured anywhere from 18 months to 2 yrs old that they asserted to bully the littles. Flock pecking order has to be established but I don't put up with hurtful behavior when an aggressive or heavy hen picks on a 2-lb bantam. Some chicken breeds are not nice to each other while others are very docile toward each other. Our sweet 3-yr-old White Leghorn alpha suddenly went bonkers on her flockmates and we tried to give her time to settle down but ultimately decided it safest to re-home her. Whereas, our 3-yr-old Blue Wheaten Ameraucana preferred to flee rather than fight any challengers in the flock. She just jumped over the Silkies or other breeds if they chest-bumped her. Sweetest temperament breed we ever had and sad to have lost her last July

~ that's the hardest part about having pets, seems like you always lose the favorites.

 

[kellyloveschad]

My Silkies have moods. When my little Black is broody she terrorizes all the other hens in the flock with her Bitc*#*y behavior and everyone including the other Silkie avoids her like the plague. Once she's over her broody cycle she's back to being her spunky joyful self and the other fowl will toodle around with her again. She loves toodling with the very active large fowl Breda hen and they have chasing games whenever one finds a tidbit or insect ~ the other hens leave them alone to play their game of "keep away". However during rest times or casual foraging the 2 Silkies are back hanging out together.

BLACK SILKIE KEEPING UP WITH THE BLUE BREDA


BREDA AND SILKIE TAKING A BREAK AFTER PLAYING "KEEP AWAY" WITH A CRICKET THEY FOUND


THESE 2 SILKIES ARE USUALLY TOGETHER DURING REST TIMES OR CASUAL FORAGING


Wyandottes per MyPetChicken classifies Wyans as having a tendency toward domination so it's not a surprise that yours is becoming an alpha hen. Most of my dual purpose pullets got along well with the Silkies ~ even the assertive Leghorns and Marans ~ it was after the large fowl matured anywhere from 18 months to 2 yrs old that they asserted to bully the littles. Flock pecking order has to be established but I don't put up with hurtful behavior when an aggressive or heavy hen picks on a 2-lb bantam. Some chicken breeds are not nice to each other while others are very docile toward each other. Our sweet 3-yr-old White Leghorn alpha suddenly went bonkers on her flockmates and we tried to give her time to settle down but ultimately decided it safest to re-home her. Whereas, our 3-yr-old Blue Wheaten Ameraucana preferred to flee rather than fight any challengers in the flock. She just jumped over the Silkies or other breeds if they chest-bumped her. Sweetest temperament breed we ever had and sad to have lost her last July

~ that's the hardest part about having pets, seems like you always lose the favorites.

ya my silkie breeder/friend said it helps that most my flock are different colors she said if you have all solid black and one with strips or white they will pick on the one!! I didn't know what I wanted so I got a little of everything!!!!

 

[Sylvester017]

ya my silkie breeder/friend said it helps that most my flock are different colors she said if you have all solid black and one with strips or white they will pick on the one!! I didn't know what I wanted so I got a little of everything!!!!

For the first 3 yrs of having backyard chickens we experimented with a few breeds for breed variety and egg colors. First I wanted just Silkies. Then we had the opportunity to add some nice egg-layers. Cycling through 14 chickens in 5 years we finally decided which breeds worked best for us and we are down to 4 hens ~ 2 Silkies and 2 Bredas. Both are docile breeds and not large hens so we no longer have the bullying from our old dual purpose heavier large fowl. Silkies are good egg producers when not broody and the eggs are the largest of the bantam breeds. And Bredas surprised us by being a docile breed and very prolific layers. We no longer experience a colorful egg basket but I wouldn't trade the peaceful flock we have now for all the colored eggs in the world and we've had some very interesting egg layers:

AMERAUCANA, BREDA, SILKIE EGGS


BUFF LEGHORN (pink eggs) AND AMERAUCANA (blue egg)


A SILKIE "FART" EGG


MARANS, WHITE LEGHORN, BUFF LEGHORN, & SILKIE EGGS

 

[Sherloki]

Roosters will also behave that way. I have 2 polish bantam roosters that are very close like that even now that they are grown.

Breeds will mix together in a flock but it is funny to note how often the same breeds will hang out with each other at mid-day, snooze times, or casual foraging, or even next to each other at roost. What's the old sayings? "Like begets like" or "birds of a feather flock together" or you get the idea! My two Silkies are strangely not best buddies but they often will be near each other when toodling around in the yard. For this reason I prefer to have at least 2 Silkies in the flock. They will go near a large fowl at times but seem to prefer to stay near each other.

Cool! Thanks for the info guys!

 

[jenniferlamar70]

Cool! Thanks for the info guys!

Welcome.

 

[kellyloveschad]

ok i have a real sos!!! This is the story of little Freddie mac!!! she now not only enjoys picking on my dogs but the babies to.... how do I know the difference between pecking order and mean??? I guess I should note she doesn't think she is a silkie spends 90% of her time with the big chicken she sleeps on the perch next to my Alpha...






This is my sweet barred rock that really is taken with the babies and wants to be their mom!!! Freddie mac made her comb bleed now she wont go near them could my little Freddie mac be alpha in a flock with 9 large chickens in it????


the babies are a little bigger and I stay with them the whole time!!! My breeder friend cant help because she has only had silkies.... but idk what Freddie's issue is!!!

krewella

snow white

sleeping beauty

 

[mythreegirls]

Looks exactly like mine, and at 17 weeks, it began crowing!

 

[kellyloveschad]

Looks exactly like mine, and at 17 weeks, it began crowing!

Maybe but if thats the case my rooster is guy!

 

[em530]

Could anyone help me with what colour my silkie is please? It looks like I have a few more in a recent hatch that are this colour too?

 

[Sylvester017]

ok i have a real sos!!! This is the story of little Freddie mac!!! she now not only enjoys picking on my dogs but the babies to.... how do I know the difference between pecking order and mean??? I guess I should note she doesn't think she is a silkie spends 90% of her time with the big chicken she sleeps on the perch next to my Alpha...






This is my sweet barred rock that really is taken with the babies and wants to be their mom!!! Freddie mac made her comb bleed now she wont go near them could my little Freddie mac be alpha in a flock with 9 large chickens in it????


the babies are a little bigger and I stay with them the whole time!!! My breeder friend cant help because she has only had silkies.... but idk what Freddie's issue is!!!

When my little 41/2 yr old Black Silkie went broody last month and then started molting on top of that, she was terrorizing the flock with her bitc#y behavior and everyone avoided and ran from her. After her hormonal stage passed she was back to being her happy joyful self again. I don't know what Freddie Mac's issues are but could she possibly be going through a broody stage? I would isolate the offender (Freddie) before her meanness gets contagious with the rest of the pets. If she is broody hormonal it can take a couple weeks or a month for her to get past her cycle then re-introduce her back slowly to the group. She'll lose pecking order status while isolated and will have to gradually be added back in if she has calmed back down during isolation. Silkies are an adorable bunch but hormones or molting can agitate them out of character. Isolating an offender can help you monitor to see what's up with her. In our Black Silkie's case we knew she was broody plus molting because of sitting in the nestbox all day and then in a couple weeks started losing a bunch of her feathers and now she is back to laying eggs again.

MY BROODY BLACK SILKIE DOING HER FLUFFED-UP BROODY TURKEY DANCE! IT WAS ALL THE WARNING THE OTHERS NEEDED TO STAY THE HECK AWAY FROM HER!