Would this work to balance the pecking order?

[AnimalTamer]

I am planning to get chickens. i am getting 1 Buff orpington, 1 barred rock, 1 silkie, 1 buff cochin,1 RIR and 1 easter egger. I have heard that Buff Orps are docile and are ussually picked on. By having the silkie, which is also not ussualy a pecker, wou,d the sort of leave the two alone?

-AT

 

[MeepBeep]

Chickens have individual personalities and although a breed might generally be more docile or more aggressive that isn't a hard rule or something you should expect to hold true...

Pecking order in a coop is dynamic and will change over time no hard rules of if one will be picked on or not...

All you can do is monitor it and if it gets out of hand punish (isolation resets them to the bottom of the pecking order) or get rid of the trouble makers...

 

[cafarmgirl]

I agree, all you can do is see how things go. Although I personally would not keep one silkie in with standard birds. If anybody is going to end up getting picked on it's likely to be that one silkie because it looks different and is likely to be very docile and low, maybe lowest, in the pecking order. If I was going to add silkies to my flock I'd have several, or let them have their own pen. Of the breeds you mentioned getting the only one I'd be worried about is the RIR. The ones I've had have always been a pain in the backside as far as being at least somewhat aggressive to the other birds.