Unlike what roosters do in general, Silkie roosters are characterized by calm and polite temperaments to a large extent. Having a rooster in your flock is a matter that has several positive aspects.
Contrary to what some people think that the roosters are annoying and should be isolated. Understanding the behavior of the roosters and developing a plan to take advantage of its positives and avoid its negatives, will be very useful for your flock.
In this article, we’re going to discuss the nature of Silkie roosters and we will mainly answer the question of whether silkie rooster are protective or not.
Are Silkie Roosters Protective?
Yes, Slikie roosters are really protective. Although silkie chickens are known to be peaceful and docile, they are very protective of their chickens and will always guard them against any threat.
Slikie cocks lack some strength factors. They cannot fly like other chickens and they have feathers around their eyes that impair their vision. However, they do their best to defend their ladies against anything that threatens them.
The Protective Nature Of Silkie Roosters
As we mentioned before, the silkie breed is non-aggressive and peaceful, however, the protection behavior of roosters appears strong. Protection behavior in silkie roosters is an inherent behavior in them as a result of genetics and genes that result in physiological changes that enhance protective behavior in roosters.
Some may think that hormones appear strongly only in female chickens, where they are responsible for ovulation, laying eggs, and incubation.
This is true, but on the other hand, roosters have very strong hormonal changes that occur continuously not only throughout the year and during the mating seasons, but also throughout the day!
Testosterone reaches its peak in the morning and evening, which is why yelling and alarming behaviors occur during these times as well, but that doesn’t mean he’s not on task all day.
During puberty, the activity of the hormones increases, and this appears in the rooster’s behavior. Hormones prompt that young bird that was only interested in playing and exploring to realize that it has a very important job to do which is to be the protector of the flock. But it may not know what it is supposed to protect its flock from.
Protection behavior is often unbalanced at first, either by bad guesses that it attacks anything without reason or fear that it is a source of danger or that its protective behavior is laughable, one of the breeders reported a rooster attacking and squeaking predatory toward Butterfly!
Role Of Silkie Roosters In Protecting Their Flock
During puberty, the protection behaviors develop and the rooster begins to gradually mature. The rooster performs its tasks, which begin with collecting a database of threats and risks around its flock in an attempt to learn how to protect.
In addition to that they explore the safest places so that they can be fortresses for them later when attacked, all this happens in the rooster’s small brain without us feeling, and some may be surprised at this, but it is what is really happening.
Examples Of Protective Behavior In Silkie Roosters
If the rooster feels the presence of any threat, it will shout and issue a warning siren. In addition, it tries to defend a flock, so it raises its neck, jumps quickly, and tries to kick and bite the enemy.
He may whip which is a very strong flapping to strike the enemy.
Factors That Influence Protective Behavior
There several factors that may hugely impact the protective nature of silkie rooster which includes:
1. Age
Age is also a very important factor, as the rooster needs to reach a certain age in order to start protective functions.
Silkies usually start to crow after about 6 months, some may take longer as silkies are known to be slow growing.
Also, young Roosters fight at different ages, depending on their speed of growth, structure, and the environment in which they live.
2. Environment
Protection and stewardship behavior appears in silkie roosters in general regardless of the environment even if there are no dangers. You will find silkie roosters constantly circling their herd, taking on the role of guard, and helping their girls to eat. but protection behavior appears more when there are threats.
3. Number Of Hens
The number of chickens versus roosters is also an important factor and has many aspects. It is not, as some belief, that increasing the number of roosters will be good for preserving the flock, but rather it should be in an appropriate proportion so that it does not result in other problems.
It is usually not preferable to keep more roosters so as not to cause problems for the chickens with regard to mating. One rooster can cover 10 chickens, but with regard to silkie roosters, it will be good to keep one rooster for 6 chickens.
Bear in mind that the absolute minimum number of chickens per rooster must be at least three or four to reduce the damage to chickens as a result of repeated mating.
Training Silkie Roosters To Be More Protective
Silkie roosters are smart and can learn easily. You can train them on some skills to enhance their protective behavior and you will find them responsive to you. You can reward it with toys and food to encourage them to do more.
Here is a short video that demonstrates how to teach silkie chicken a particular skill, it may inspire you to teach your silkie rooster how to be more protective:
FAQS
Are Silkie Roosters Loud Or Quiet?
Silkie roosters are loud but don’t crow as loudly as other breeds of roosters. Most silkie cocks crowing occurs in the early morning and late at night.
There is no specific frequency for Silkie’s cock crowing. Rather, it varies based on the rooster’s personality and other factors in their environment but generally silkie single cocks don’t crow.
Are Silkie Roosters Aggressive?
Silky cocks are not aggressive as other cocks, as they have a moderately calm nature. they do not start aggression, but if they feel that there is a danger to their flock, they will take the initiative to defend it as much as they can.
Are Silkie Roosters Friendly?
Yes, they are friendly and show good social behaviors. They can be less than hens in that. but they are classified as very friendly roosters compared to what other breeds of Roosters do.
