Silkies and Polish hens in a standard flock???

[Robert Kazlauski]

I have four hens: a black australorp, buff orpington, blue laced red wyandotte, and EE (I think). I am so tempted to purchase a white silkie and/or a white crested black Polish. Should I? I dont want to do that if that be disatrous and that they would get picked on constantly or a lot. Advice?

Has anyone attempted to raise these cuties with standard hens? What happened? Iappreciate your honest opinions.

 

[fluffycrow]

These birds look nothing alike the ones you have. Birds that look very different sometimes get a rougher reaction from the flock. In addition, these birds are very calm and complacent, which makes it even harder to stand their ground. From what I understand, you'll be getting a single one? IMO, this situation is far from ideal, so I would say stick to something LF and crested, or if it's the size you're after, maybe bantam English Orpingtons

 

[sourland]

Sometimes when raised together from chicks silkies and Polish do okay in mixed flocks. Sometimes they are bullied and Polish especially have their crests plucked and are sometimes scalped. Introducing them into an established flock would likely be very difficult.

 

[rosemarythyme]

It may or may not work out. If you are willing and able to set up a separate enclosure for them (this is assuming you're getting at least 2 of these "decorative" breeds to form a subflock) if things don't work out, then no reason not to try it.

 

[PoppasGrill]

We only have 1 Silkie , rooster, he’s a bit of an outcast, but our leghorns still hang with him. The big roosters chase him from the feed so we have to feed him and his few girls off to the side.
We also have 2 Polish roosters and 1 hen, they have integrated pretty good with the rest of our flock, with minor skirmishes .

 

[cheekyEggCollector]

We started our flock with 4 hens. Then we incubated 4 silkies and 4 wyandottes. Turned out to be 3 silkie roos and 1 wyan roo we could not keep. So we now have 1 silkie girl with 7 big hens.

She obviously is lowest in the flock but with several feeders/waterers she is doing fine. Took some time for her to decide to join rest of the flock in the coop for the night but is now roosting with them fine.

She just started laying and this seems to give her a bit of courage but we plan to give her some company.

 

[DasanAcres]

My Silkie has done the best in my mixed flock. She was a day old chick that I tucked under a broody hen and grew up with the flock. The only issue with her is that she's so much smaller than my standard sized rooster that she tends to look pretty rough when he takes a liking to her. Though if she's broody or raising chicks, she will take on birds three times her size without thinking twice.

My Polish have done ok with my mixed flock. I had one rooster that was raised with standard sized chicks and then jntroduced into an existing flock, and Ive started a brand new flock, separate consisting of same-age chicks raised together. The hens seem to get along better than the roosters. The roosters invariably seem to get picked on/lose their pretty crests.

I think your best chance for success is to get Silkies and/or Polish chicks whenever you plan on adding more standard size birds to your flock, then introducing everybody all at once. Or putting day old chicks under a broody hen. Though as another commenter mentioned, it is probably a good idea to have a separate space ready for them just in case.

Picture of my white Silkie, Kreme, hanging with full size chickens, including a roosters that she hatched and raised and the hen who raised her.

 

[ForFlocksSake]

Anecdotal- My original flock is made up of a RIR, white leghorn, barred rock, Easter egger and a buff orphinton. I just added 4 new girls to the run. 2 have small crests (olive egger and cream legbar) and one is a golden laced polish. I don’t find the polish is getting any more attention than the other newcomers in the bunch. My polish is quickly becoming my favorite. She has such a spunky and sweet personality.