Silkies and standard chickens in one coop

[Spartan22]

Anyone pretty succesful mixing silkies and standard size chickens in a coop? Was it a long term or short term cohabitation? Since silkies doesn’t perch, how do you avoid having them covered with droppings overnight?

 

[Kessel23]

I have mixed them before with great success. I have one tiny silkie cockerel with the flock of standard sized birds right now. He does well. I have had trouble in the past trying to mix unusual birds with a standard flock. Standard sized birds can easily hurt a silkie.
I do not know what the best way is to go about mixing them is but I did it when they were chicks. I had 5 silkies but the rest died from Marek's.

Some silkies will perch, this one has gotten up on the 5 foot roost and easily gets up on 3 foot roosts. Some of them don't roost and will sleep in the corner. Find out where they like to sleep and if there are roosts above them then put a board on that section of the roost. That's what I do for my muscovy ducks who don't roost anyways.

 

[diamondsilkies]

I currently have four silkies with the rest of my flock, which consists of both standards and some other bantams. They all get along quite well. In fact, one of my silkie hens is at the top of the pecking order.

To introduce them, I separated my coop with a small fence, and put my silkies on one side and the rest of the flock on the other. The silkies were quite young at this point, so I let them grow until they were almost full sized. They could see the other chickens quite well, and the standard sized flock would often fly over the fence to visit. At first, there was some pecking, but eventually it got sorted out and never became too serious. Once the silkies were big enough, I left the gate of the fence open, so the whole flock could come and go through both sides, but the silkies still felt like they had their territory. After a week or two, I took the fence out, and all seemed well.

I will add that silkies will not always sleep under the roost. In fact, mine almost never do. However, once they pick a spot, they are very stubborn. Their spot will occasionally move around, but they will never sleep where you want them to. I had one hen that insisted in sleeping right underneath the roost, making for a gross mess of her feathers in the morning. I tried to move her, but she refused. After a week or two, she went back to sleeping with the rest of the silkies. They don't like getting pooped on either, and it doesn't take long for them to figure it out. Good luck!

 

[Alexandra33]

Silkie owner here! It works beautifully. My four (two cockerels, two pullets) are about 10 months of age, and will continue to co inhabit with standard breeds permanently. Thankfully, all four pile up in a area where they won't get hit with stink bombs during the night.

~Alex

 

[50-45-1]

Its not that silkys dont perch.
Its about the fact that they dont have the wing lift feathering to get up on some perch situations.
If you add lower roosts or ramps they may be able to get up on the roost. They like to roost with the others.
I find silkies are sometimes bullied by other standard breeds, so be watchful for that.

 

[chickens really]

Mine Roost on lower Roosts..I'm adding Speckled Sussex to my Coop this spring. It all depends on the individuals if they get along.

 

[Shorty22366]

I have my silkies with my standard breeds. It all works well. Littlest silkie hen is top hen. Little in size big in attitude. Lol

 

[Cadence A Waller]

I have silkies with my orpingtons and ameraucanas and they are fine together! Most of my silkies roost, sometimes they choose to sleep in a nesting box, but as long as your roosts/perches are low enough it shouldn't be a problem!

 

[MelissaRose]

Hi!
I have four silkies living with standard chickens, two of them are roosters. The hens sleep in the nest boxes but my roosters get up on the roosts with everyone else. Since the hens sleep in the boxes they don't get pooped on, you do have to cleen out the boxes more often though. If you have one or two lower roosts then they can jump on to those and then on to the higher roost, ladders also work. I would not recommend having a standard size rooster with a silkie rooster, when I did that the silkie got beat up. I find that the silkie roos, since they are bantams, don't damage the hens as much.
Mine have been living with standard chickens for about a year now.
Good luck!