Feeding advice for bantams (one broody, one moulting)

[House MD 221B]

We LOVE silkies, they are adorable, and seem like really nice placid hens.

 

But how well do they do with bigger hens?

 

We did have a bantam before with 3 bigger hens and we always felt that we kind of got lucky that she was never bullied and pecked at, in fact during introductions she almost looked a contender for head chicken.

 

But if we got a silkie or 2, would they have to be kept separate from the main flock? Or would they hold their own.

 

because two separate flocks wouldn't work for us, and we wouldn't want to put them together at the risk of ending up with a couple of bullied and potentially injured chooks.

 

Thank you kindly for any help.

[Sammiboo]

I have purchased some silkies today, I have 8 big chickens but I have bought a new house for the silkies. I personally do not trust my girls as they are bullies the lot of them! But its still early days for me to give a definative answer I'm afraid

[House MD 221B]

That's ok, thank you for replying Like I say I always felt that we got lucky with Angua, she was very strong willed in spite of her size, but I wouldn't know if thats the norm, or if we've been lucky with having quite placid and nice bigger hens.

[MedusA]

I have 2 Silkies and they seem happy enough in with my flock with 7 fiesty ex-batts, 1 Suffolk Noir (she's a big solid bird) and 1 (cowardly) Araucana. They don't seem to have problems but do have to learn to respect the pecking order as they are quite low down, though one of mine tends to forget that.

 

Yes Squib, I'm talking about you!

[docsquid]

I have one frizzle silkie, Gwladys, and she's been with two other banties and four big girls. She is a bit of a loner, and low in the pecking order, but not bullied and chases the cat whenever he strays into their fenced-off area

 

I have two new blue silkies from the National show last weekend. They are going to be at or near the bottom of the pecking order, but seem to stay out of the way of the big girls, even when shut in the run. I just make sure I have plenty of feeders so they always have somewhere out of the way to eat, although they prefer to scratch on the floor than eat from feeders They are learning to get stuck in when I throw mealworms into the run, and I think they will integrate just fine.

 

I think it depends on the chooks. I have two hens (one big, one bantam) who could be bullies but they are kept in check by my top chook. If I lost her, things might be different.

[Space Chick]

Silkies like company of their own kind, so I would get at least 2.

 

I have 6 Silkies in my flock.... Also have other bantams, pure breeds, hybrids and ex batts. Everyone gets on fine

 

In fact one of my silkies likes to pick on one of my large fowl

 

Be prepared that intros can take longer though.

[House MD 221B]

Thank you all so much, we're left feeling a bit more positive about it now, and would gladly have 2 or more due to our WIR setup, an extended introduction isn't an issue either. Thank you just have to make sure any other chooks we get are nice and docile friendly breeds.

[Redwing]

Someone on the IOW has a nice sounding Silkie for sale - ad is on the Practical Poultry forum

[House MD 221B]

Thank you Redwing, I'll check it out, we've been in touch with Jed Dwight and a couple of other places on the island that have been recommended, and got some promising leads come spring time, fingers crossed we can order our Cube for the 5th December, and then we can go and look at some more girls

 

We're probably going to stagger introductions 2 hens at a time, so that they will be different ages, and then we won't be in this situation again where we'll be worrying that if one goes, there'll only be one old girl left.

 

Would you recommend doing the Silkies first, second, or last? or is it irrelevant? as we'd like to keep our flock between 6 and 8.

 

Thanks again

[Space Chick]

I'd say Silkies first.... Unless you have a dire egg shortage and then I'd say second.

 

You won't get many eggs from Silkies, and they do go broody at the drop of a hat

 

2 of my 6 are broody at the moment

 

I think the less large fowl you have the easier it will be to introduce them.... And once they are established they can tend to hold their own in new introductions

[House MD 221B]

Brilliant, then as we only have 2 girls at the minute, we shall do the silkies first, and then do more larger hens later.

 

Thank you very much we both really appreciate your help. we've only done introductions once, and again we felt like we got very lucky as they were quite short and were without incident. We'd just like to be able to repeat it and hope it wasn't a fluke.

[memphisto]

Just been reading through this, I'm going to be looking after 2 Silkies for a while whilst someone gets on their feet after a relatioship breakdown, she's giving me their Eglu Go but as I don't know how long they'll be with me, I would want to FR them if it were for a prolonged period of time...as yet it could be a week or month but however long, I'll look after them for as long as is needed but I wouldn't want them to be hurt by my big girls, although in fairness, the big girls tend to pick on one another and not the smaller ones, so would be appreciative of any tips

[MedusA]

I'm sure they'll be fine. If they are free ranging they can run away out of harm's way if needed (or waddle away at least).

[Chortle Chook]

I agree. Free ranging should make intros easier as Silkies seem to like to keep in their own little group out of the way of trouble.

[docsquid]

I agree. Our silkies arrived 9 days ago, and they have had plenty of time on their own in the run while the others FR. They are now pretty well integrated but prefer to be on their own, or with Gwladys, our frizzle silkie, and mainly in the run, even though the door is open to them. It was good to have plenty of space available to separate the flocks during the day while they were integrating. We left them all together in the run yesterday and no trouble at all.