Silkie thread!

[AWickedChicken]

Thank you! I've been very confused reading about it. We're moving soon and taking our silkie hen with us I'd like to get some silkie eggs to put under her as our silkie rooster overbred her for a while and now our sex link rooster is "king" and rarely breeds her. Thank you again!

 

[Tlmcq]

Question for y'all. I have 2 silkies almost 2 weeks old and they're in brooder with Wyandotte the same age. I have noticed the Wyandotte seems to be somewhat of a bully. Nothing major but just sorta throwing her weight around and pushing them away from areas sometimes. I've had bantams before but not silkies and am wondering if I should put the Wyandotte in the other brooder? There are chicks in other brooder that are standard size but they are about 4 or 5 weeks. I guess I'm just wondering if y'all think the silkies will be OK with her and if she'll be OK with the much bigger girls? The silkies don't seem too bothered by her it's just I heard about their skill bones and now I'm worried she could hurt them. Am I just being paranoid?

 

[Sylvester017]

This one is the same age but much smaller than the roo and still black in the comb. No wattles at the moment. Hoping this is a pullet.

Looks promising but as always it's too early to tell. You get gut feelings but really, only time will tell. Looks like a real sweetie!

 

[Sylvester017]

Thank you! I've been very confused reading about it. We're moving soon and taking our silkie hen with us I'd like to get some silkie eggs to put under her as our silkie rooster overbred her for a while and now our sex link rooster is "king" and rarely breeds her. Thank you again!

YW! Are you taking only hens with your move?

 

[Sylvester017]

Question for y'all. I have 2 silkies almost 2 weeks old and they're in brooder with Wyandotte the same age. I have noticed the Wyandotte seems to be somewhat of a bully. Nothing major but just sorta throwing her weight around and pushing them away from areas sometimes. I've had bantams before but not silkies and am wondering if I should put the Wyandotte in the other brooder? There are chicks in other brooder that are standard size but they are about 4 or 5 weeks. I guess I'm just wondering if y'all think the silkies will be OK with her and if she'll be OK with the much bigger girls? The silkies don't seem too bothered by her it's just I heard about their skill bones and now I'm worried she could hurt them. Am I just being paranoid?

Large fowl chicks grow twice as big and faster than docile Silkie chicks. My 2 Silkie chicks got picked on by the other 4 large fowl chicks in the brooder and chased them away from food, water, or just passing by. Yes, you should be worried about Silkie skull bones since injury, brain damage, paralysis, or even death can occur. Take the Wyan out. Wyans can be very dominating. Any large fowl chick can be dominating around docile Silkies.

 

[Tlmcq]

Thanx..I'll take her out now

 

[Sylvester017]

Thanx..I'll take her out now

It'll be best. I don't know why Silkie chicks are so docile and easily picked on. It seems until they reach mature size at about 6 to 8 months before they start getting a bit more confident but still a bird twice their size will take advantage of a Silkie that is too submissive. My Partridge Silkie pullet was way too submissive and it wasn't until she was about 4 yrs old before she realized she could stand up for herself. She found she could intimidate new Breda pullets twice her size and she gained confidence in herself. Of course, Breda are docile large fowl birds too and back away from any intimidation. She can't hurt Breda though. She is 2 lbs and they are 4 lbs so it works for me if Breda back away from a Silkie. The little Silkie earned the right after being pushed around so much as a pullet.


The old Partridge Silkie has no qualms sharing a nest with a Breda twice her size!


The Silkie gets first choice in feed or position around a docile Cuckoo Breda.


The Partridge Silkie loves to "garden" and will share space with the Blue Breda.


Silkie and Breda sharing garden space

 

[AWickedChicken]

No. Our first round of chickens was last year, we ended up with 8 sex links (1R and 7H) 4 silkies (2R and 2H) 4 RIR (2R and 2H) and 3 bantams (1R and 2H) well we ended up losing 1 silkie R, 1 silkie H, and 1 RIR H one night to coons last year. They're all currently in one coop and our remaining silkie hen doesn't get along with the silkie roo at all, long story short my SO and I are moving and the house has a bigger coop so we are splitting the chickens with my in-laws, as raising them was a family thing. I was going to take my original 6(3 sex link hens and the 3 bantams) plus our sex link roo and silkie hen, well a couple weeks ago we lost our bantam roo.. not sure what happened but he was found in the coop Then last week we ended up getting 6 more sexlink pullets, 2 mystery pullets, and 10 bantam chicks. So that's what we're taking with us. One adult red sexlink Roo, 3 red sex link hens, 2 bantam hens, 1 silkie hen, and the 18 chicks out of which 10 are unsexed. I know it sounds like a lot but the coop we're moving them to is double(if not more) the size of the one the adults are in plus it will have two yards and a quarantine/chick room.

 

[Sylvester017]

No. Our first round of chickens was last year, we ended up with 8 sex links (1R and 7H) 4 silkies (2R and 2H) 4 RIR (2R and 2H) and 3 bantams (1R and 2H) well we ended up losing 1 silkie R, 1 silkie H, and 1 RIR H one night to coons last year. They're all currently in one coop and our remaining silkie hen doesn't get along with the silkie roo at all, long story short my SO and I are moving and the house has a bigger coop so we are splitting the chickens with my in-laws, as raising them was a family thing. I was going to take my original 6(3 sex link hens and the 3 bantams) plus our sex link roo and silkie hen, well a couple weeks ago we lost our bantam roo.. not sure what happened but he was found in the coop Then last week we ended up getting 6 more sexlink pullets, 2 mystery pullets, and 10 bantam chicks. So that's what we're taking with us. One adult red sexlink Roo, 3 red sex link hens, 2 bantam hens, 1 silkie hen, and the 18 chicks out of which 10 are unsexed. I know it sounds like a lot but the coop we're moving them to is double(if not more) the size of the one the adults are in plus it will have two yards and a quarantine/chick room.

Sounds like you'll have plenty of room to separate groups if needed. Show pen setup after you get situated and the birds too.

 

[AWickedChicken]

Sounds like you'll have plenty of room to separate groups if needed.  Show pen setup after you get situated and the birds too.

Oh I plan on it! I'm so excited for it! I've been looking at so many pictures on Pinterest for ideas! Though the coop we have now was built for the family chickens it's still my in laws and they had all say in its design, which I don't mind as they paid for it and built it but this time I get to put my own creativity into it and though I try not to show favoritism my silkie hen is my and my sons favorite so she's going to have most say in my design lol, if she doesn't like it it doesn't stay pretty much. Even though I can't personally change the pecking order for them the place we're moving to has so many options that if I needed to she could have her own coop and be queen of it. It looks like the people had two different coops in the barn not including the shed were turning into our chicken coop which looks like they had for chickens, rabbits, and judging by the poo we had to clean out, goats lol I have an old picture of the building itself but no updates pics or any pics of the inside.