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snowchick

2 weeks in - general questions

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We've had our silkie and Cochin for 2 weeks and our other 2 silkies and a cobar for a week and they all seem to have settled in.

 

We originally wanted 2, however we have ended up with 5!!!

 

I am loving all of them but just have a few questions really, that I couldnt find answers to whilst searching the site.

 

- They have established a pecking order but a couple of the younger silkies seem very timid and prefer staying in the run to free-ranging - will their confidence grow?

 

- The Cochin keeps lying down and making funny noises - should I worry???

 

- We've had no eggs yet :( but I think I rememebr someone saying they would lay at around 26 weeks as they were rare breeds - is this right?

 

- I'd love another 3 silkies and a few others - another 6 altogether but do you think that 11 is too many>>> :lol::lol::lol:

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I have 2 cochins.

 

Cochins are very submissive and are quite happy to do anything for an easy life and are not worried about being bottom of the pecking order. If your hen is lying down when approached by another hen it means she is letting them be the boss and is just trying to escape being pecked! My 2 do this a lot as the 2 other hens I have are very bossy.

 

If she is crouching and putting her wings out to the side when you go to stroke her she could be due to lay....mind you cochins lay very late mine are nearly a year old and have only just started to lay.

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They have established a pecking order but a couple of the younger silkies seem very timid and prefer staying in the run to free-ranging - will their confidence grow?

 

We added a couple of little bantams to our two well settled 'big girls'. It's taken some time but they are getting more and more confident. One of the little 'uns actually ate from my hand for the first time the other day - which is something I would never have thought I'd see when we first got them. Food and treats seem to help matters!!!! :-)

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You say she's lying down and making funny noises ... is she dustbathing? The first time I saw one of mine do this, I thought she was having a fit of some sort - she was rolling on her back and making a purring noise!

 

Same here! Especially as there were very odd convulsive movements going on too. :oops:

 

Scary! :lol:

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farrowy

 

Did you have any problems adding the bantams? Did you keep them seperate to begin with or put them all in together?

 

The bantams spent a week in a seperate wooden house which I attached to the eglu run (through cunning use of a badminton net). We put this set up next to the other girls in their eglu all within the same fenced off area of garden.

 

The first morning - when I managed to coax the newbies out into their temporary run - the reaction of the orginal girls was great. When they heard the new girls they froze on the spot, looking quizzical as if to say 'who the heck are THEY?!"

 

So the original girlies had a week roaming around as usual in the same area as the bantams, just seperated by the run.

 

When we put them altogether it was a stressy day - our new girls seemed more upset at first, mainly because the bantam cockerel was constantly having a pop at them. However the balance of power seemed to shift once the gingernuts realised they are bigger than Henry and if anything they boss him about now! The two bantam hens have been fine, at first the original girls would chase them out of the eglu at night to start with, but they'd let them in eventually and now they are a happy gang of five :-D :-D :-D

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