Will it be okay?

[KikiDeAnime]

Since our older hens have still not gotten use to our Silkie rooster, I have decided to see about putting him together with our others. I don't want him to be lonely. I can tell that he has been ever since he lost his two pullets and his brother.


Would putting our Silkie rooster together with Mille Fleur D'Uccle & Buff Orpingtons be okay?

I can't right now as they are still chicks but I plan to once they are old enough.
I know the buff orpingtons will be bigger than him but I just want him to have hens who will accept him.

Huge thanks in advance!!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Yes it should be okay once the chicks mature some. I would pen him next to the chicks so he becomes familiar with them. He may even try to take care of them. Some roosters do.

 

[KikiDeAnime]

Yes it should be okay once the chicks mature some. I would pen him next to the chicks so he becomes familiar with them. He may even try to take care of them. Some roosters do.

Actually I had a small incident happen earlier.
One of the D'Uccle chicks flew out while I was reaching in to grab their water to change it and landed in Silver's tub. Luckily he only stared at her but it did give me quite the scare!
He seemed more scared of her than she did of him.
She's safe though and now.

 

[Ridgerunner]

How old is that Silkie "rooster"? Is he fully mature or still a cockerel? His level of maturity has a lot to do with how he is accepted by by mature hens. I don't know what you are seeing that makes you think the older hens are not getting used to him but those could be because of maturity differences. It sounds like your Silkie male is a bantam as most Silkies are. What sizes are those older hens? Are they injuring the Silkie or threatening him with harm?

Can you mix a bantam Silkie rooster with bantam D'uccle hens and Buff Orp hens (I assume the Orps are full sized)? Many people do without issues. Some people have issues even if they try to mix chickens of the same size breed. It just works that way when you are dealing with living animals. You never know what will happen.

My mature flock master roosters have never threatened a baby chick. Some help Mama take care of them when I have a broody raise chicks with the flock but most just ignore them. I regularly turn five week old brooder raised chicks out of my brooder so they can mingle with the rest of the flock. My brooder is in the coop so those chicks are raised with the flock which I think makes a world of difference in integration. My flock, management techniques, and set-up are different from yours so I can't suggest how you manage them. And I trust a mature rooster a lot more than an immature cockerel. But that chick may not have been in as much danger as you seen to think. Still, I agree with your keeping them separated.

 

[KikiDeAnime]

How old is that Silkie "rooster"? Is he fully mature or still a cockerel? His level of maturity has a lot to do with how he is accepted by by mature hens. I don't know what you are seeing that makes you think the older hens are not getting used to him but those could be because of maturity differences. It sounds like your Silkie male is a bantam as most Silkies are. What sizes are those older hens? Are they injuring the Silkie or threatening him with harm?

Can you mix a bantam Silkie rooster with bantam D'uccle hens and Buff Orp hens (I assume the Orps are full sized)? Many people do without issues. Some people have issues even if they try to mix chickens of the same size breed. It just works that way when you are dealing with living animals. You never know what will happen.

My mature flock master roosters have never threatened a baby chick. Some help Mama take care of them when I have a broody raise chicks with the flock but most just ignore them. I regularly turn five week old brooder raised chicks out of my brooder so they can mingle with the rest of the flock. My brooder is in the coop so those chicks are raised with the flock which I think makes a world of difference in integration. My flock, management techniques, and set-up are different from yours so I can't suggest how you manage them. And I trust a mature rooster a lot more than an immature cockerel. But that chick may not have been in as much danger as you seen to think. Still, I agree with your keeping them separated.

I just realized I said rooster and not cockerel. I feel really stupid now. Silver is around 5 months old.

We have 10 hens. 5 of them are 2 yrs old, 1 of them is a yr old as of Saturday, 1 of them is nearly 1 yr old, and the last 3 are 6-7 months old. Our flock consists of 2 Black sex links, 1 Red sex link, 2 BLR wyandottes, 1 Red bantam cochin, 1 White bantam cochin/silkie mix, 1 Olive egger, 1 Buff orpington, and 1 Blue wyandotte. All of the hens attack him once they see him. Everytime they were out free ranging and they saw him, one or two would charge towards him and attack.

The 2 Mill Fleur D'uccles are around 6-7 weeks old and the Buff orpingtons are 4-5 weeks old. Once they are all old enough, I plan on introducing them to Silver.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't see my mature hens go out of their way to attack an immature cockerel but mine are raised with the flock from hatch, yours was not. I think that has a lot to do with it. Once he reaches full maturity they might accept him as flock master but it's quite possible that would involve serious fighting, especially with the dominant hen. I had a dominant hen in a flock with no dominant male that left a cockerel alone unless he was bothering one of the other hens, then she would knock him off. But when he matured enough to challenge for flock dominance they fought for two solid days before she finally accepted his dominance. Some of that depends on the rooster, some depends on the individual personality of your dominant hen.

Your plan sounds good. Just house them as close together as you can for as long as you can before you introduce them. I think that helps a lot.