faythlund
In the Brooder
- Jul 18, 2015
- 33
- 2
- 37
About three days ago (Sunday, July 19th) we received two chickens. A hen, and a rooster. They are the same age as our current flock, but alot smaller due to conditions they were living in before we got them. They were kept in a small dog kennel only being fed every few days. The original owners basically just lost interest in them. They were then brought to some people we know. They tried putting them in with their chickens right way, it didn't work well because of the already settled pecking order. Legally they can't have a rooster where they live so they were only going to give us the rooster. As they were raised it was just the two of them it would've been too much for them to be separated, so we ended up with both of them. We knew now, not to put them in right away with our other 13 chickens, so we shut the door to the coop so our chickens couldn't come in while we made adjustments to the coop. We put a screen up in front of our largest nesting box (room for three) and put them in there so that they could still see and hear everything that was going on in the coop. With the screen there it prevented any fighting before they got comfortable with each other. The next day, they got upgraded to having the entire coop and the gravel portion of the outside to roam around by themselves. They did good, got used to it fast, but when we even put one chicken with the two they just fought for the pecking order. We continued to keep them separate. Today when I woke up the first thing I heard was that the chickens were all together, and when I went out to see, they were fine with each other, but if our girls go up to them the rooter does stand up for the little one. She has her protection in him, and I have yet to see them not standing in the same spot.
