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JFQuest

JFQuest

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First of all.. thanks for having a great forum out here for those suburban farmers to join.

Last year, we got three chicks: (1) NH Red and (2) Buff Orpheningtons (sp?). We lost one of our Buffs this winter. So we decided to get some chicks for spring. (1) Black Araucana (sp) and (1) Black Silkie. Well, during my weekend of introducing my birds we had a casualty. As far as I can tell, since I stepped inside for about 5 minutes, one of my older hens must have made her way to pick on the chicks (about 2 months now) and the Aracuna got between her and the silkie. Chaos erupted, and so far as I can tell my dog broke through the fence to get between the birds and my Aracuna must have either had a heart attack or something. The dog wasn't touching the bird, but was covering over her as if she was protecting her from the other hens. The silkie was just there traumatized.

Top all this off with the fact my wife and daughter are out of town for the week! Should I ruin their trip and tell them what happened, or wait a week till they get home?

Also, suggestions on integrating my now single Silkie with the others?
 
How sad...so sorry for the chaos you encountered! When integrating any new birds to existing ones you really should separate them somehow...even just some chicken wire between them let's them stay apart but get to know each other somewhat. This can take several weeks and even then you still might have a squabble or two.

As for when to tell wife/kids....WAIT! Let them enjoy their time away and then deal with it when they get home. Good luck to you...keep us informed!
 
Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! Sorry about the loss of your chick. X2 on integrating them slowly, it is usually best to wait until the younger birds are about the same size as the older ones, or as big as they are going to get, and letting them get used to each other from behind wire usually works well .. ie if you can divide the coop or keep the younger birds in a cage in the coop for three or four weeks, nice article from the Learning Center on adding birds to your flock https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock
With Silkies, do be aware they are rather special and may not be able to be kept with regular birds, so you may need to keep her separate from the rest of the flock.
Also, I would be very suspicious of your dog actually being the cause of most of the incident. She may have been responding to a squabble between the chickens or gotten excited by one, but that she broke through the fence and you found her standing over a dead chicken makes me very concerned rather then trying to protect the chick that she actually killed her.
 
Hi and welcome to BYC from northern Michigan
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So sorry about your bird. I agree with giving the bad news when they get back, there's nothing to be done about it and no need to ruin their trip. I also agree about your dog, sounds suspicious - maybe he should not be allowed in with the birds, at least until they are older. Young birds can be very silly and run around, very attractive as a toy.
 
Welcome to BYC! I would definitely replace the chicken wire with 1/4 inch hardware cloth (very strong mesh wire) to prevent any more incidents with the dog breaking through the fence. Good luck to you.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions, especially on keeping the little Silky segregated for a much longer time... possibly indefinitely!

I really think that with my pup she was trying to help out (to quote Sigfried from All Creatures Great and Small she can be a bit of a daft ***** sometimes -- 13+ years old too) but caused more of an issue than she helped. There were no wounds on the bird, and she was covering it as if to protect it. I found that when the larger hens would approach both her and silky she would play wounded to draw attention away from the other bird. I am thinking she might have tried to shield the chicken from the others, and maybe landed on her accidentally. She didn't have any feathers in the mouth, and no blood or skin breaks on the bird, but I am going to have to pay much greater attention to her in the future with the birds as well.

I am going to just have to suck-it-up and wait a week to tell my wife and daughter when they get back, which will ruin my day once again but for their well being I think it is going to be for the best. Saddest part of it all is that my daughter named this chicken the same as the one we lost this winter. Apparently Cinderella is a cursed chicken name in our household!
 
Hello there and welcome to BYC!

So sorry about this fiasco. These things happen. And I agree, wait until they get back before you break the news. Definitely work in new birds slowly from behind a cage or fenced area but within the flock. Keep new birds separated for about 3 weeks in sight of the flock at all times. Usually after this length of time, mixing goes fairly well. Of course always intervene if it turns bloody.

Good luck and I wish you all the best in life!
 

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