We kept ours in a large laundry basket with a heat lamp until the rooster started to crow LOL they were probably half grown (rooster was as small as the silki hen) when they got booted out to the yard.
And let me tell you, that rooster was lucky he didn’t become dinner! Little sucker had an attitude and attacked everyone! Just imagine a little 8 inch tall bird trying to gouge out a 6 foot tall persons eyes with its spur– and then just know that it happened on a daily basis! He made my silki hen look tame LOL The hen just didn’t want you to take her eggs, the rooster flat out wanted every dead. I tend to get all the crazy animals, for some reason lol
I think we bought 6 or 7 chicks, and ended up with three. Really two, in the end, because our second hen (some really big egg layer-type hen– the thing was almost turkey-size, seriously!) eventually died of what I can only assume was a blockage because she never gave us eggs, even while the silki was laying daily. Either that or a heart attack because she litterally laid next to the food bowl so she could eat and never have to move. It was all very strange. Then at one point we got a game hen. Worst. Decision. Ever. Had to build a screen roof over the run to keep her in, after chasing her down the street the first day we brought her home lol
