No one can tell you what will happen. It works that way with chickens’ behaviors. They are living animals, about anything could possibly happen. There are a lot of people on this forum that have Silkies mixed in with their flocks and have absolutely no problems because of that. A lot of people. Don’t let one person frighten you by giving you one possible outcome. There are a lot of possible outcomes, most of them good.
I don’t know how it is going to work with your EE’s and roosting. Since Silkies can’t fly some don’t roost. Some will hop up on low roosts or might climb a ramp to get to roosts, but some don’t do that even if they could get up higher. With your ladder roost they should be able to hop up if they want to. As always there are different possible outcomes. I’d expect your EE’s to eventually start roosting but they might form a bond with the Silkies and stay with them on the floor. It’s even possible when your EE’s start roosting the Silkies will decide to join them.
My brooder raised chicks normally start roosting overnight somewhere around 10 to 12 weeks. I’ve had some roost at 5 weeks, some take longer, but for most it’s around 10 to 12. That’s with no adults around. I don’t know how your Silkies are going to affect that.
Right now the pecking order is determined by maturity. Your older Silkies are at the top, the immature EE’s at the bottom. Normally the immature ones would form a sub-flock and try to avoid the older ones. The older ones often or even usually don’t tolerate having the younger ones around and will peck them if they invade personal space. It sounds like yours may not be doing that, at least at night. If that is the case, you are doing great.
At 18 weeks your Silkies are not totally mature, but your cockerel may be old enough to assume some or most of a dominant rooster’s duties. One of those is to protect all members of his flock, including chicks. That might be part of what is going on, why they are sleeping together. Dominant roosters sometimes help take care of the chicks during the day. The Silkie pullet may be along for the ride. Your set-up is pretty unusual with those breeds and those ages. A lot of different things could be going on.
I hope you are right, that all five EE’s are pullets. Sometimes mistakes are made on sexing chicks. If one or more is a cockerel instead of a pullet your chances of problems go up. I’m not going to guarantee disaster if one is a cockerel, but it is something you will need to watch.
If they are all pullets I’d expect that Silkie cockerel to be the dominant chicken, even after they all grow up. Some roosters are more dominant than others, but even if he is a bantam and the EE’s are quite a bit larger, he should still dominate them. When the EE’s mature enough to challenge for pecking order rights they will determine which one is top hen and the others will sort out the rank behind them. That’s normally about the time they start to lay in my flock but yours is unusual. I don’t know when that will happen with yours. Until that happens your Silkie pullet will be the dominant hen but I’d expect her to lose that position when the others mature.
Usually this goes pretty smoothly. I hardly ever see any fighting between the pullets and hens when they go through this process. Sometimes there is but usually there is not. My dominant roosters usually, not always but usually, break up what few fights there are. That’s part of a dominant rooster’s job, to keep peace in his flock. Some roosters are better than others. I have pullets growing up in my flock all the time. This transition into the pecking order usually goes extremely smoothly.
In my opinion, one big factor in all this is room. The more room you have the smoother this usually goes. I don’t know how much room you have, either in the coop or outside. Another factor is that mine grow up together as part of the flock. I think that tremendously helps and you are doing that.
In my opinion I seriously doubt your Silkie pullet will be picked on because she is a Silkie and thus “different”. They are growing up with her, they are used to her and how she looks.
I will never say you will never have problems. Even if every one were an EE or if they were all Silkies you still need to watch them as they go through the maturity process. But with the Silkies being the older ones and them growing up together, I think your chances of problems because she is a Silkie are pretty small, especially if you have lots of room.
Good luck!
