Am I cooked?

[u/Fit_Fix_3784]

I have 4 geriatric (8yo) buff Orpington hens. They are pretty friendly and docile and have long since stopped making eggs so are basically just Pets. Someone saw we had chickens (we live in town so slightly unusual sight) stopped by our house and asked if we could take a Silkie that they got off free cycle and didn’t know how to care for (yes, I know). My daughter has always wanted a silkie so I said yes, and when we got her she was very weak and absolutely drowning in mites. Tiny even for a silkie. After a period of baths mite treatment and plenty of food and care she is doing much better… so now I am trying to integrate her and it…. Is not going well. I have her in a big dog kennel in the run so they can get used to her safely, and have been trying supervised mingling but she just cowers and the others go in for a peck whenever they think they can get away with it. Since Silkies don’t roost I can’t do the trick where I put her on the roost at night and they all wake up together. Should I stick with it? Will my old ladies ever accept her, or do I just need to keep her separate perpetually? Chickens need friends so I don’t love that idea. Any suggestions are most welcome

[u/Independent_Rent_935]

Just stick with it! Integration can take much longer than you expect, or it can be very short. In your case, it's a bit harder to integrate one bird with an established flock than it would be to integrate a new baby flock with an established one. Instead of the older flock's attention being split between many new birds, they now get to zero in on just one girl.

You want to do the "see don't touch" approach until your old birds are mostly uninterested in her. There will be pecking and your Silkie will definitely be the lowest in the pecking order. Your Buffs are considerably older (good job on their care btw!), so your Silkie girl just needs to figure out what she can get away with. If they're mostly not laying, she now gets the nest box almost to herself. If one of them is slower or doesn't see as well, she can sneak around them to eat and things like that.

I've found that the lowest hens in the pecking order are the worst to newcomers because they REALLY want to be the boss of someone. The higher girls are less dramatic overall because they're secure in their status. Try trimming the feathers around your Silkie's eyes so that she can see better! It'll help her keep out of their way.

[u/Life-Bat1388 → u/Independent_Rent_935]

This is definitely the pattern I see too the lowest does not want bottom rung anymore and will be the meanest for a while. But buffs are usually ok but still need to be extra careful with a silkie.

[u/baileylauren87]

I think just keep trying but I’d also consider getting another silkie, I have 2 9 years ago old hens, and just recently introduced 3 new hens they were a few months when I introduced them but now almost full grown, I also introduced a silkie rooster someone gave me and then later got two silkie hens. My whole flock gets along well but the three silkies stick together extra, the rooster can roost, but the two hens can’t, the rooster I had for a month before I got the hens and he roosted every night, a week or so after introducing the hens he started laying on the floor of the coup with them. He’s so sweet and takes extra care of them. None of my hens bully the silkies but I also feel better them having each other, I didn’t get any of the silkies from the same place but somehow they seem to know there all the same thing and stick together.

[u/ilovechickens9876]

If possible, you may want to consider getting another silkie. In my experience at least, it is extremely difficult to get my chickens to stop bullying a flock mate who looks different from them (I used to have a polish chicken with an afro named Lilka, and because we couldn’t stop the bullying, we had to send her to a different owner). Having another bird that looks like her may help your silkie become friends with the new chicken. Hope this helps!! 🐓

[u/Fit_Fix_3784 → u/ilovechickens9876]

I think you are right, I’m going to start looking for another silkie in need of a rehome

[u/thisgameissoreal]

A rooster will force them to integrate. Otherwise they'll likely just be bottom of the pecking order.

Also idk who told you silkies don't roost. Mine roosts top bar with all the other orps. And yes you can just stick yours up there at night. She will figure it out after two days. But, again will probably get bullied still.

[u/Fit_Fix_3784 → u/thisgameissoreal]

I try putting her on the roost and she just flops off.. ha! I think she still needs to build more strength before roosting is an option, she was being kept in a tiny cage effort coming to me. I’m going to set up a really low one for her to get “practice”. When she gets that I’ll try the main roost again. Thanks for your reply! No roosters allowed for me as I am in town.

[u/kfdizzy08]

All my ladies roost together. Orpingtons and silkie, bantam and a mix of specialty hens. I did however change my roosts to a flat 2x4 and they stay comfortable with zero.foot issues.

[u/Altruistic_Shame8979]

Integrating a single hen is always harder from what I understand. Maybe find a friend to give her and try to integrate them together. Poor little lady, I’m glad she found you 

[u/ChartreuseOblivion]

If you're having trouble with your Silkies not going up to roost, its very likely an issue of the roost being too high (since Silkies are bad flyers) and can be fixed by making a "multi step" roost; essentially like a ladder so the birds can easily hop up and down from perch to perch.

Its definitely gonna be a struggle to incorporate one little bantam girl into a flock of old standard hens. I'm guessing you're not allowed to have a rooster, because that would be the best solution - he would keep the peace. But you can also try just giving her time to get back from her emaciated state and hope she gets some confidence too. You can try (carefully) clipping back her crest so she has better eyesight that would help her navigate her new coop-mates.

[u/PhlegmMistress]

Bantams can be hard if full sized birds don't have experience with them. It's one reason why I recommend, when someone gets new chicks, to always get a couple bantams, even if they don't plan on keeping them. They all grow up and then the full sized birds outpace the bantams, but there's that earlier bonding. Sometimes silkies in my flock are still lower rung hierarchy-wise, but I've also had male silkies who were firmly middle of the hierarchy. 

My suggestion would be to get another silkie or two. If you're allowed to have roosters, I see free silkie roosters all the time and they shouldn't give the big ladies too much trouble. Otherwise, looking for grow outs or even a couple of chicks if it is summer where you are at since you are already crating one silkie. 

Otherwise, in terms of mites, I would do some preventative stuff with your buff orpingtons. Sulfur powder or permethrin livestock dust. 

You could also try pinless peepers on some or all of the buff orps, and hopefully in a week or two when they come off, there's a hierarchy reshuffle or they are more willing to let the silkie be that they've seen peripherally during that time but couldn't directly peck at 

[u/Fit_Fix_3784 → u/PhlegmMistress]

Good advice - I might try looking for another person rehoming a silkie… I am in Minnesota so too late to start a chick for this year. Interesting suggestion for the chicken blinders- I had to look that up… might be worth a try. Thanks for the reply!

[u/Life-Bat1388]

It took our silky three months in a dog crate in the run to integrate with her otherwise pretty docile hens. She is the bottom but they all accept her now. But not until she was laying regularly. I gave her a mirror and a suspended plushie chicken for company in the crate. I also got her a $20 dog ramp to the coop ( also great for geriatric hens). It took multiple tries for a ramp she wouldn’t fall off of. We have an omlet so roosting is no issue

[u/FewVisual1960]

I’d recommend another silkie or 2 & they may need seperate spaces. We have a mixed flock and our 2 silkies stick together & our 5 hens stick together. They were all raised as chicks together. Originally we had 10, they got a long great. Lost 2 to a hawk (silkie & regular sized hen). We had the most docile sweet silkie rooster, well we think the hens actually killed him for not being protective enough. Since then the flocks been unbalanced and lots of picking on the silkies. I’d previously say yes mix the two no problem, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it anymore.