Young Introductions

[3KillerBs]

Yeah we have big ideas and big plans but know its a lot of learning along the way and im sure we will make tons of mistakes. We have permanent wire fencing with a system of gates and runs for the exclusion and inclusion of of the chickens in different areas.

Fortunately, chickens are, in general, tough, resilient animals that manage to put up with our mistakes.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I can't wait to post some pictures here of the whole chicken/veggies setup! but its not quite photo ready yet!

I'm looking forward to those photos. I saw one where someone put a permanent coop in the middle, built a small run around that, then had the rest divided into six areas coming off of that. They had a certain rotation where they'd grow crops in some and use the others to graze the chickens, letting them graze one area down before letting them into the next. Each year they'd rotate how each section was used. It will be interesting to see what you came up with.

And the mrs thinks they are oh so cute and fluffy

Doesn't sound like you will be eating many of those. But if you hatch them you will get about half cockerels. In some cultures the black meat of silkies is considered a delicacy.

The girls we are getting are the same age as the boys about 4 months.

What a potentially volatile age though it's one I prefer in your situation with the cockerel's age. The boys tend to hit puberty before the girls. Their hormones tell them to dominate the flock. They do that by mating with the girls. The one on bottom is accepting the dominance of the one on top, either willingly or by force. At this age it's generally by force. This has nothing todo with fertilizing eggs, there probably aren't any eggs yet. It's all about domination and the hormones are in control. Once the boys and girls mature this tends to really calm down but as someone on here once said watching immature pullets and cockerels go through puberty is often not for the faint of heart. This doesn't mean that it is always this rough. Sometimes the process of getting through puberty is really calm and smooth, you don't see any problems, but the potential is there.

At that age I'd want to house them across wire for a week or so, then let them mingle when you can observe. Then let them mingle and see what happens. Base your actions on what you see. He may need to go back across wire for a while or they may work it out pretty easily.

We want one because we are planning on breeding some chickens

Why do you need two? I think getting a second boy complicates it more than you need as you are learning. One boy can fertilize eggs. You'll get experience with multiple cockerels when you start hatching chicks.

 

[MWSIFarm]

Haha no we were never planning on eating any of the silkies, hence the want for the RIR later on. However the unwanted cockerels would be given away and failing that dispatched, processed and fed to our dogs.

We were not aware of the complications of having more than one boy, fate however has looked after us and the other cockerels available turned out to be pullets so we will not be getting another boy anyway. We get the hens tomorrow.

How do you know if things are going “too far”. I know to watch for injury and make sure no one is excluded from food and water aside from that is there anything else to watch for to know to intervene?

 

[3KillerBs]

Haha no we were never planning on eating any of the silkies, hence the want for the RIR later on. However the unwanted cockerels would be given away and failing that dispatched, processed and fed to our dogs.

We were not aware of the complications of having more than one boy, fate however has looked after us and the other cockerels available turned out to be pullets so we will not be getting another boy anyway. We get the hens tomorrow.

How do you know if things are going “too far”. I know to watch for injury and make sure no one is excluded from food and water aside from that is there anything else to watch for to know to intervene?

Blood drawn -- in more than a "minor peck to the comb" quantity.

Chasing, cornering, and continuing to attack after the other chicken has submitted.

If you read the behavior forums regularly you'll learn a great deal about normal and abnormal chicken behaviors.

 

[MWSIFarm]

Blood drawn -- in more than a "minor peck to the comb" quantity.

Chasing, cornering, and continuing to attack after the other chicken has submitted.

If you read the behavior forums regularly you'll learn a great deal about normal and abnormal chicken behaviors.

Awesome thanks! I will check that out for sure

 

[3KillerBs]

P.S. SPACE is critical.

Over the past 18 months I've had many reasons to be grateful for my over-sized facilities and the options they offer.

The Usual Guidelines

For each adult, standard-sized hen you need:

• 4 square feet in the coop (.37 square meters)
• 10 square feet in the run (.93 square meters),
• 1 linear foot of roost (.3 meters),
• 1/4 of a nest box,
• And 1 square foot (.09 square meters) of permanent, 24/7/365 ventilation, preferably located over the birds' heads when they're sitting on the roost.

And a splendid article which explains why these are *guidelines*, not hard-and-fast rules: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/how-much-room-do-chickens-need.66180/

 

[MWSIFarm]

Well we have the space easily so that wont be an issue. I will rig up some exclusion fences so we can do the intro for about a week or so and see how they go.

 

[3KillerBs]

Well we have the space easily so that wont be an issue.

That makes me happy to hear it!

So many people start out being fooled by the manufacturers' claims about how many chickens those dollhouse prefabs hold.

 

[MWSIFarm]

That makes me happy to hear it!

So many people start out being fooled by the manufacturers' claims about how many chickens those dollhouse prefabs hold.

My family is italian, when we build things including chicken coops, we build em big! Haha

 

[3KillerBs]

My family is italian, when we build things including chicken coops, we build em big! Haha

I've never heard of anyone regretting building their coop too big!