mandichickens
Hatching
Hi everyone,
I have 7 chickens. I got a cockerel and 4 hens originally and after one was killed by something we bought two more already sexed hens. All our chickens were bought as (i don't know the term! Young adults? Not chicks but the hens weren't laying yet and the cockerel wasn't cock a doodling!!) and we bought them from a poultry breeding farm that had a variety of different breeds and also show chickens. We were told confidently that we now had 5 hens and a cockerel (all bought from the same place) but it seems like one of our silkies may be a cockerel. He is much larger than his other "hen" sisters and just kept growing! The big changes have happened in the last month. He has lots of plumage. He still hasn't started laying eggs unlike the others we have including the hen we bought with him so they are the same age. Our current cockerel seems stressed and has lost a few feathers, the new one is only coming up to around 5/4 months and seems like he doesn't have it in him to fight and we have never witnessed it so maybe it's stress about another cockerel with his hens? We have seen him trying to mate with one of the hens but I'm not sure if that can happen sometimes with hens. We tried to look online at pictures of silkie roosters but we just need to know from some experienced people for definate! I'm attaching some pictures so you can have a look at him
Thankyou very much (we also have no problem keeping him and couldn't get rid of him at this point but we need to get him his own house! Would it be best to get him some hens of his own as it seem cruel to split up the current hens from our original cockerel?) I hope this all made sense!! Thankyou. If you need more pictures I can send them but I could only work out how to attach one
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I have 7 chickens. I got a cockerel and 4 hens originally and after one was killed by something we bought two more already sexed hens. All our chickens were bought as (i don't know the term! Young adults? Not chicks but the hens weren't laying yet and the cockerel wasn't cock a doodling!!) and we bought them from a poultry breeding farm that had a variety of different breeds and also show chickens. We were told confidently that we now had 5 hens and a cockerel (all bought from the same place) but it seems like one of our silkies may be a cockerel. He is much larger than his other "hen" sisters and just kept growing! The big changes have happened in the last month. He has lots of plumage. He still hasn't started laying eggs unlike the others we have including the hen we bought with him so they are the same age. Our current cockerel seems stressed and has lost a few feathers, the new one is only coming up to around 5/4 months and seems like he doesn't have it in him to fight and we have never witnessed it so maybe it's stress about another cockerel with his hens? We have seen him trying to mate with one of the hens but I'm not sure if that can happen sometimes with hens. We tried to look online at pictures of silkie roosters but we just need to know from some experienced people for definate! I'm attaching some pictures so you can have a look at him
Thankyou very much (we also have no problem keeping him and couldn't get rid of him at this point but we need to get him his own house! Would it be best to get him some hens of his own as it seem cruel to split up the current hens from our original cockerel?) I hope this all made sense!! Thankyou. If you need more pictures I can send them but I could only work out how to attach one
