Post by Christine on Jul 4, 2008 5:13:24 GMT -5
About a month or two ago, I bought nine hens to augment the three Black Star hens, and one Bantam rooster already living on my property. My main motivation for acquiring more chickens was to wage an extended Jihad against the flies that bother the cows and horses on a daily basis.
When I arrived at the chicken supplier, they gave me 11 birds instead of 9. One of them was a white leghorn rooster. As the rest of the juvenile birds began to grow, I kind of took a liking to this guy. He's handsome as all get out, and struts around with the rest of the juvenile birds in his flock. I like the idea of having a rooster around because they seem to act as guardians for their flock to keep them out of harms way.
I introduced the new birds to the old ones by splitting the coop into two sections, and isolating each group from each other. There was chicken wire between them so they could see and smell each other. After a week of this, I started letting them intermingle. At night, the older birds hung out with the other older birds, while the juvenile birds stuck to themselves on the other side of the coop. The white leghorn chose to roost at the top of the wall separating the two sides of the coop. He and the Bantam rooster seem to get along OK.
As most people here know, my adult hens have been roosting at night in a fir tree near my barn. Since we have foxes running around, this means that I have to climb the tree to return the hens to the coop for safekeeping. Since I didn't want 15 chickens to start roosting in the tree, I took the advice of board members, and have isolated the adult hens in the coop for 2 weeks.
This morning, I heard some nasty squawking from the coop, so I headed over at a run. There I found the three adult hens beating up on the white leghorn. He was huddled in a ball in the corner, and the hens were actually drawing blood on the guy. I scooped him up, and let him loose outside, soon followed by the rest of the juvenile birds. Tonight, the entire flock of youngsters were all roosting in the coop (separate from the adult birds), but the Leghorn was in the tree. I was going to allow him to stay in a dog crate in the house (to keep him safe), but figured that the dogs and cats would scare him half to death. I put him on the juvenile side of the coop, and hoped that he would stay out of the adult side until morning.
What do I do about the abuse? Will this fix itself once the leghorn gets big enough to defend himself, or will the leghorn start beating on the hens and the Bantam rooster? I thought that having them grow up together would encourage them to get along. I also don’t want him showing the other chickens the “roosting in the tree” thing again.
Finally, my Black Stars spend most of their day scratching around eating bugs and flies. They work like dogs. The juvenile birds seem to spend most of their time sleeping in the bushes. They don’t do much scratching, saving their efforts to eating the spilled grain that the cows and horses drop during their meals. Did I get a batch of lazy chickens? How can I encourage them to “get with the program”, and to start eating flies?
Thanks
Kip
When I arrived at the chicken supplier, they gave me 11 birds instead of 9. One of them was a white leghorn rooster. As the rest of the juvenile birds began to grow, I kind of took a liking to this guy. He's handsome as all get out, and struts around with the rest of the juvenile birds in his flock. I like the idea of having a rooster around because they seem to act as guardians for their flock to keep them out of harms way.
I introduced the new birds to the old ones by splitting the coop into two sections, and isolating each group from each other. There was chicken wire between them so they could see and smell each other. After a week of this, I started letting them intermingle. At night, the older birds hung out with the other older birds, while the juvenile birds stuck to themselves on the other side of the coop. The white leghorn chose to roost at the top of the wall separating the two sides of the coop. He and the Bantam rooster seem to get along OK.
As most people here know, my adult hens have been roosting at night in a fir tree near my barn. Since we have foxes running around, this means that I have to climb the tree to return the hens to the coop for safekeeping. Since I didn't want 15 chickens to start roosting in the tree, I took the advice of board members, and have isolated the adult hens in the coop for 2 weeks.
This morning, I heard some nasty squawking from the coop, so I headed over at a run. There I found the three adult hens beating up on the white leghorn. He was huddled in a ball in the corner, and the hens were actually drawing blood on the guy. I scooped him up, and let him loose outside, soon followed by the rest of the juvenile birds. Tonight, the entire flock of youngsters were all roosting in the coop (separate from the adult birds), but the Leghorn was in the tree. I was going to allow him to stay in a dog crate in the house (to keep him safe), but figured that the dogs and cats would scare him half to death. I put him on the juvenile side of the coop, and hoped that he would stay out of the adult side until morning.
What do I do about the abuse? Will this fix itself once the leghorn gets big enough to defend himself, or will the leghorn start beating on the hens and the Bantam rooster? I thought that having them grow up together would encourage them to get along. I also don’t want him showing the other chickens the “roosting in the tree” thing again.
Finally, my Black Stars spend most of their day scratching around eating bugs and flies. They work like dogs. The juvenile birds seem to spend most of their time sleeping in the bushes. They don’t do much scratching, saving their efforts to eating the spilled grain that the cows and horses drop during their meals. Did I get a batch of lazy chickens? How can I encourage them to “get with the program”, and to start eating flies?
Thanks
Kip