Silkies and Dual purpose chickens

[greyolives]

Hi, new here and pretty new to the chicken world.

I've been wanting silkies for some time now and finally got the "okay" from the other half. In addition to silkies, though, I'd love to get a flock of dual purpose (meat and egg) chickens. I've been googling like crazy but can't find anything from recent about which breed is a good dual purpose chicken and how they are with silkies.

We live on three acres and the horses are on two of it. That leaves me with about 3/4 of an acre for the chickens. I can't "free range" (we rent and have coyotes/buzzards) but can give them a decent area to roam under supervision and a 10x20 coop. I intended setting this up between where our dogs are when they're outside to deter the wild animals and right outside our side door to keep an eye out.

With that, what dual purpose chicken could I safely house with a silkie and what breed(s) would give me a decent amount of eggs along with being good to eat? The importance of egg to meat isn't that important. If we get a good amount of eggs, great. If we can get a bird worth cooking, great. So this "venture" would be more for fun.

Any ideas and input would be great.

 

[Veer67]

You could get Red Stars, they are great layers my Red Star lays through the winter they are also very friendly.

 

[SilkiesForEver]

You could get Red Stars, they are great layers my Red Star lays through the winter they are also very friendly.

I've found that my red stars were very aggressive toward "lower ranking" birds. Silkies are a very vulnerable breed with their vaulted skulls, and crests. They are basically a "poodle" chicken breed.

Also, while each breed has different characteristics, the personality of a single bird might be completely different with what the typical review says.

Sorry I couldn't help with choosing a breed, I just wanted to give you a heads up.

And Welcome to BYC by the way. Glad you joined.

 

[Veer67]

I've found that my red stars were very aggressive toward "lower ranking" birds. Silkies are a very vulnerable breed with their vaulted skulls, and crests. They are basically a "poodle" chicken breed.

Also, while each breed has different characteristics, the personality of a single bird might be completely different with what the typical review says.

Sorry I couldn't help with choosing a breed, I just wanted to give you a heads up.

And Welcome to BYC by the way. Glad you joined.

My Red Star was at the bottom of the pecking order so she was bullied more by the higher ranked hens.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I've never had problems putting silkies with other breed. Silkie personality usually puts them at the top of the pecking order. They are prima donnas, and know it, and make sure the other chickens know it, too.

Plymouth rocks are one of the traditional dual purpose breeds. Gentle, but personable and interested in people. I love mine. One of my boys occasionally comes to the back door, looks inside and starts crowing. Goof ball!