Wednesday I ordered Welsummer, Buff Orpington, RIR, Cuckoo Maran and Delaware chicks from Meyers to be delivered the last week in Feb, first week of March. I am only getting 1 of each except the Welsummer (2 of those), all pullets (fingers crossed). Tomorrow I am ordering hatching eggs--I wanted Barnevelder and Naked Necks from Ideal--but they only sell a dozen of one breed--no mixing. So I am going to wait and just get Barnevelder later. For my first trial with the home-made incubator I am thinking of ordering 2 Silkie, 2 Ameraucana and 2 speckled Sussex eggs from Meyers, since they will let you buy only 6 eggs and mix them. My question is--is it okay to mix the Silkies with the other Standard breeds? And if only one Silkie hatched would it be lonely? Maybe I should order 4 Silkies, 1 Ameraucana and 1 Sussex? 6 Silkies? I wish they offered Dutch Bantam eggs. I have no idea if I will like the Silkies (they are so funny looking but if I can't have my Dutch Bantam, I think I will like the Silkie temperament best). I can't order too many eggs since I will have to rehome any roos but I want to perfect my incubator skills on something loveable.
Mixing Silkies and Standards?
yes silkies can be raised with standards but if you have a crested breed such as silkies i would have a few so the others aren't singleing it out so much. lot of times if you only have 1 that is bearded or crested it stands out and the others get jealous so they will pluck the heads or beards to make them the same as them and since they are crested it's hard for them to see it comeing to get away.
if it was me with all them breeds i'd probably get 4 silkies to take off the attentions so they didn't stand out so much but that's just my opinion. i know when i only had a few polish mine would do that to them constantly so i had to seperate them to protect the polish. they didn't bother with the silkies as i had more of them so they where normal to them i guess cause they never did it to the silkies.
hope that helps,
silkie
Thank you silkie! That is sort of what I thought. It is funny how sensitive chickens are to appearances. When I had my 2 Orpington and 2 Australorp--even though they were all together from the day they hatched they definitely paired off according to breed. They basically traveled together in a little flock, but if one of the Orps or Austs took off his buddy would go with him. By the way, how loud are Silke roosters? I am not suppose to have roosters here, but the morning after I rehomed my last pair, I could still hear roosters crowing in the neighborhood. So some one else is guilty. Even if one of mine crowed a little (ha,ha), I don't think I would get in trouble. The Orpinton's crow was definitely less objectionable (meaning loud) than the Australorp's although the Australorp's was more musical. But that may just be individual birds.
Thank you again for your help!
You can definately hear a silkie roo crowing!
your welcome, yep ya can hear a silkies pretty good. the quietist crowing i know of is seramas.
silkie
my silkie roo is so quiet
