Hi, i am so excited to be here. We bought our chicks at 1-2 weeks old mid march and they are thriving. Since then every time I have had a question and google; BYC has come up with the best information. Cannot believe it has taken me this long to join. My name is Catherine and live in Essex VT. We; my fiance Wiilam and 3 girls have 2 dogs, 2 dwarf nigerian goats, 2 horses and one rabbit besides our 37 chickens! Just found my first egg!!! Still so many questions being my first time raising chicks. Hers's my most urgent issue: when we stopped by tractor supply store for the chicks it was my youngest daughters birthday and just had to have a chick of her own: hence the 37 chickens. I just wanted layers for eggs to have. They are a mix of red leg horns and something else..So the 37th chick was a silkie. And believe it or not with the 80% guarantee female I think we have 36 hens and one rooster which happens to be the Silkie. Still trying to figure out if i have any red roosters. I think he is beautiful but starting to dominate the hens. When they were younger all the others ganged up on him making him bleed. We separated him by putting him in a cage inside the coop until he healed. I felt so bad I let him out back into the flock. Now he is so much bigger than everyone else. would it be a bad thing to have a rooster of another breed? So looking forward hearing from everyone; I love my pretty birds.
from a fellow Vermonter! You should come join us in the VT thread I don't think your red chickens are leghorns, red is not a common color on them and you're not likely to find them in feed stores like Tractor Supply. If you want to post a picture we can likely tell you what they are. I'm guessing they're red sex links. Your silkie was likely straight run (not sexed) because silkies are bantams and hatcheries don't sex bantams, with the exception of My Pet Chicken which isn't really a hatchery at all and does not ship to feed stores. If he is a rooster that's fine, there's no problem with having a rooster that is a different breed than your hens
Hey Catherine, welcome to the forums! Pyxis seems to have already helped you with the issue you were having so I won't add anything else, as if I actually had something helpful to say The community here is very friendly and I'm sure you're going to love it here!
Hi Catherine and welcome to BYC. @Pyxis has answered your question, so it simply leaves me to say a big hello All the best CT
Are they all around the same age? I'm just surprised that a silkie cockerel would be larger than your hens unless they are bantams too.
and Hey @candwchicks I am so happy you joined our roost at BYC! I would like to welcome you with open arms! Yes this site is very helpful for all chicken related things! I hope you enjoy BYC and make sure to post pictures of your flock and give us updates on how you are doing here https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/40/family-life-stories-pictures-updates All the best of luck to you and your flock! Justin
Hi I posted some pics.. can you let me know..it doesn't look like it but the rooster is a lot bigger...thanks
Welcome to BYC! Just like Google directing you here, using this site search engine provides great endless chicken and misc. information!
