chickens are such a surprise

[bj taylor]

I let the 12 little baby chickie monsters loose in the chicken run today & locked the big boy and girls out. they spent all day running like mad chicks from here to there. they went in the coop, checked things out thoroughly, then took a long nap in there. late this evening, I let the rooster & the girls back into the run, ready to run interference if any rough stuff happened. it went like silk. not a bit of a problem. the rooster was a complete gentleman & the girls were nice too. for once, the chicken dynamics went easy. who knew?

 

[seedcorn]

If u survive AM, home free. In AM is when problems will occur.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yeah if they are still together tonight I suggest you be there at daylight to open it up and let them out as soon as they wake up. Give the young ones a chance to get away if they need to.

Sometimes these things do go real smoothly. Sounds like you are off to a real good start.

 

[so lucky]

Seedcorn, are you saying that when the birds wake up in the morning, they are going to act like they have not been introduced? Wonder why? I know chickens don't make much "people" sense, but I would have thought that, when they wake up with a strange bird in there, they would not remember they didn't know each other yesterday.

 

[Ridgerunner]

They have to know each one's position in the pecking order. If they don't know it, they have to figure it out. Usually that mostly involves chasing and running away, or maybe the young ones staying on the roosts or hiding under the nests to stay away from the older ones. A lot of times this goes really smoothly. Sometimes it doesn't. You read about both cases on BYC, mostly about the ones that work which to me means it goes smoothly most of the time.

I personally think only benefit of sticking them together at night is that they often work it out before the human gets to the coop in the morning and interferes. But occasionally there are disasters.

 

[canesisters]

Well lets hope that the night time addition thing works because that's what I'm doing tonight.
The new hens have been separate for several weeks and have spent this past week in the tractor right up against the main run fence. The original hens don't seem to give a darn one way or the other about having new neighbors. I need to re-do the roost to make room... have been meaning to get that done all week but just haven't gotten around to it. So tonight they will have a new roost and after dark they will have new roost-mates. I'll be out crack-o-dawn in the morning to monitor the breakfast rush. I'm also going to drag a few pallets over and lean them up against the coop, a tree, the fence to provide cover in case anyone is getting chased too much.

Bj, I'll be doing the adding babies thing in a few weeks so let us know how this works out for you.

 

[bj taylor]

I didn't put the babies in the coop for the night. seemed to risky for me. they're still pretty small. I've got one hen, gabby, who can be a little monster. she's a silver laced wyadotte. once I put them in, I will set the alarm so I can be there to make sure nothing too bad happens.
I need to re-work the roost to make room for the added numbers. when my broody hatches her babies, i'll be overrun w/chickens. I haven't named this current bunch - other than 'the dirty dozen'. several of them will be my first foray into the meat business.

 

[baymule]

BJ, I put 6 chicks in the coop with my 2 SLW "mean girls" a couple of years ago. I put a wire cage with the chicks in it, in the coop. I left them in it for a week, then I propped the cage door open. When the SLW's got too rough, the cage provided a safe place for them to retreat to. The chicks returned to their cage at night to sleep for weeks. Finally they started sleeping on the roost with the big girls and I left the cage in for one more week and then took it out. Yes they had their squabbles, but there was no blood and none of the chicks were injured.

This past year, I decided to get more chickens. I added a run onto the coop for more room. I got 20 chicks that hatched Christmas day. When they got big enough to go outside, my grandaughter and I built a small A-frame coop for them. I covered the hole from the coop to the run until the chicks got big enough to defend themselves, about 3 months. Half turned out to be roosters and they went to freezer camp. There was enough room for the younger chickens to get out of the way of the older hens. The young chicks retreated to their coop, and the older hens never went inside it. DH and I built a bigger roost, but it was weeks before the pullets left the safety of their small coop for the big coop.

 

[canesisters]

Flock additions - so far, so good.
I moved the 2 new hens last night into the big coop. Then this morning, right around dawn I went down and made sure the pop door was open, in case anyone needed to make a quick escape. Since the roosts in the coop are a great deal higher than in the tractor, I put the new girls down on the floor while it was still pretty dim. As soon as it got a bit lighter, all the original hens were standing up tall watching the new ones on the floor ( I was outside peeking in the window). When it got light enough, Hurra (roo) jumped down and right away approached each one to mate. They let him and, as far as he was concerned, that was that. As soon as Citizen (head hen) saw what was going on she was down too. She's a silver laced wynadotte, but is bantam size. She tired her best to see to it that the new girls knew she was in charge, but she didn't really have much of a chance with the jersey giants. A little chest bumping & a little jumping up and down and the 4 who were on the floor went outside. The others were right behind them. Everyone took a turn standing up tall, fluffing up and chest bumping the new girls - but they are at least 1/2 again bigger so everyone gave up and settled down 1 peg lower in the pecking order - except Citizen. She is determined to hold her place as head hen and poor Hurra has been busy for 2 hours running around behind her and getting between her and whoever she is picking a fight with.
So - unless something really gets going later today - I think it's pretty much a non-issue. Which is fine with me.

Hope you have as good of luck adding the chicks.

 

[bj taylor]

canesisters, it sounds like a go. I wish I had some jersey giants to give my roo a run for his money.
tonight my dirty dozen are sleeping in the coop, on the floor. they're not happy, they want to be under the heat lamp, even if it cooks them. I've got it on & directed to the coop & they're all huddled against the screen door as close to the light as they can get. they raised a lot of cane settling down. the big ones had to listen to a long noise session, but they made no effort to get down on the floor & mess with the kids.
i'll get out there first thing & make sure the pop door is open so whoever needs to, can escape quickly.
I feel the babies are much safer in the coop. it's about time for the rat snakes to get active & their brooder isn't that snake proof. the coop is very snake proof & I can rest easier knowing they're in there.