Silkies

[Heather Navarro]

I'm fairly new to this but I got 2 silkies in May my Rhode island reds and leghorns in March. I couldn't get them to mix until I lost two hens for unknown reasons the pecking order was disrupted already so on the advice of some friends I was told to place them together and let them work it out. It's been almost a week and they're doing okay. My female silkie hides under the water jug still though. And it's not just one of the two Rhode island it's both of them and the roo silkie that peck at the female silkie. We even initially tried separate but ajoing coops with their feed in close proximity to one another but they still would draw blood and peck feather after weeks. But like I said so far so good I guess. I do have 5 day old wynadotte pullets that when big enough we will again try to add to the flock. I'm a little nervous about it.

 

[jlabs]

2 are pure silkie, they've been sitting together in a nest box quite a lot. Yes, I'd heard that silkies are "clucky-prone" and make good mums. My girls are still very young, I was surprised that they started up nesting at their age.
The only thing different yesterday was there was yet another girl in with them. View media item 7894357

Great pic. Love silkies! My silkies pile up too!...under their low roosting bars.

 

[Renn]

We have 2 barnevelders, 2 Easter eggers, 2 olive eggers, 1 speckled sussex, and then a bantam Cochin and 2 bantam silkies. They were all bought together as chicks and raised together so their relationships are great. we have had no problems but again, they were raised together and not introduced later on so I'm not sure how that would go as I don't have experience adding any new chickens to the flock yet.

 

[User395221]

Great pic. Love silkies! My silkies pile up too!...under their low roosting bars.

I couldn't stand it any more, I stuck some (supposedly) fertilised eggs under them. The 2 silkies and the black polish/silkie in the photo are nesting, and also their other "sister" polish/silkie has joined in. It's a huge clucky fest. Hopefully it'll cure everybody of their cluckiness.

 

[2Fast2Curious]

One thing that helps is always introducing new chickens by twos or more.

Our Silkies/Silkie mixes integrated well into our flock. They were between the ages of 2 and 6 months at introduction. There was some fighting between the pure Silkie rooster (6 months) and this usually quiet but high ranked clucker here (2 years):

She got him good with her spurs (yes, she lays) and he hasn't messed with her since.

Beyond the normal pecking order establishing stuff, including a RIR/Polish 2 year hen who's a recreational pecker, they get on well with our average sized hens. Our red sexlink (2 years), who's low on the pecking order, likes to hang out with 'em.

It looked like Silkies were mixed with some huge breeds where I got them, too.