NY chicken lover!!!!

[pharmchickrnmom]

Morning all. Looks to be another beautiful day today. Good day to rake and bag pine needles. I think they are all dried out on the road. Heard that hawk this morning as I was letting out the cheeps. Definately has my yard as part of its territory. Last night was the second night in a row that I didnt have to chase the juve silkies inside. I think they have finally learned to go in the coop to roost. The two I put in with Legolas also went back to that coop as well so they must have accepted that that is their new home. The ladies are still a little witchy towards them but not as bad so hopefully things will smooth out in there. I heard Little Big Man practicing his crowing earlier. He sounds so cute with his little boy voice.

Elroddo--as long as nobody is drawing blood, I would combine the groups. Its always hard the first two weeks because there is a lot of bickering and bullying and jostling between them to establish a pecking order. As long as the younger ones have enough room to escape from the older ones, they should be fine. Sometimes it helps to take out the dominate hen/hens or bully hen/hens for a couple of days to give everyone else a chance to just chill out and get to know each other. Like I said, its hard to watch them the first two weeks because it looks and sounds like they are killing each other.

Lynzi--pics of the new run when you get it please!

Have a good day all.

 

[Lynzi777]

Morning all.  Looks to be another beautiful day today.  Good day to rake and bag pine needles.  I think they are all dried out on the road.  Heard that hawk this morning as I was letting out the cheeps.  Definately has my yard as part of its territory.  Last night was the second night in a row that I didnt have to chase the juve silkies inside.  I think they have finally learned to go in the coop to roost.  The two I put in with Legolas also went back to that coop as well so they must have accepted that that is their new home.  The ladies are still a little witchy towards them but not as bad so hopefully things will smooth out in there.  I heard Little Big Man practicing his crowing earlier.  He sounds so cute with his little boy voice.  

Elroddo--as long as nobody is drawing blood, I would combine the groups.  Its always hard the first two weeks because there is a lot of bickering and bullying and jostling between them to establish a pecking order.  As long as the younger ones have enough room to escape from the older ones, they should be fine.  Sometimes it helps to take out the dominate hen/hens or bully hen/hens for a couple of days to give everyone else a chance to just chill out and get to know each other.  Like I said, its hard to watch them the first two weeks because it looks and sounds like they are killing each other.  

Lynzi--pics of the new run when you get it please!  

Have a good day all.

Definitely Pharm! He said he plans to go out and buy supplies today and work on it today and tomorrow (he goes to work at 4pm). I'm keeping my fingers crossed he'll have it done for me this weekend since he said he can put it together in a day. They're coming up Saturday to babysit.

This is the second time now I've tried posting from my phone the keyboard always dismisses itself while I'm trying to post. Does anyone else use the app from their phone and have issues with it??

 

[wny egger]

Anyone had trouble mixing 2 different age groups of chickens together? My big girls (8 SLW) are around 18 weeks old, while my little girls ( 1 columbian and 4 GLW) are maybe 12 weeks old, and I tried putting them together and the big girls attacked the first one they saw. I then put them in a run next to the big girls run for a week, then tried again. After 3 days of the little girls being scared to death and basically being chased back into the coop anytime they came out I reseperated them. That was a week ago. I'm wondering if I should try again, or wait for them to get bigger so the big girls don't intimidate them as much.

you no iran over this idea for weeksd before i had desided to mix my flocks ..i had split the run in half for over a month before letting them meet beek to beek..it was still hard for me to watch ..but i also made sure they were all on the same feed and the same size ,,,and after a month or so , i removed the fence in the middle ..i also put a few bails of straw and an old tire in there for the ones at the bottom of the pecking order had a place to run to and hide ..i had to put aprons on a couple of my wellies to keep the others includding the wellie roo from tearing out all their tail feathers ..and the roo had been with the other wellies from the start ..but it didnt stop him from partaking in the beat downs on them ..i agree with others ..its better to just let them sort it out ..its not easy to watch but they kinda know what they are doing ..so as long as they are not drawing blood , they are the same size .. i'd say just let them be chickens ..but you may want to give the lower ranking birds a place to hide if they need to get away ..

 

[Tough Old Bird]

I think we got your weather in NY wet cold & rainy

I am so far out of the loop (coop?) here! Lynzi - you made the move back to Connecticut? I hope things are falling into place for you and the family, including your chickens. I feel badly I missed such a significant chunk of time here over the course of the summer. Happy that you are still keeping in touch with us New Yawkers!

TOB

 

[Tough Old Bird]

Anyone had trouble mixing 2 different age groups of chickens together? My big girls (8 SLW) are around 18 weeks old, while my little girls ( 1 columbian and 4 GLW) are maybe 12 weeks old, and I tried putting them together and the big girls attacked the first one they saw. I then put them in a run next to the big girls run for a week, then tried again. After 3 days of the little girls being scared to death and basically being chased back into the coop anytime they came out I reseperated them. That was a week ago. I'm wondering if I should try again, or wait for them to get bigger so the big girls don't intimidate them as much.

I had a tough time with my two separate age groups getting integrated. There was just too big of a size difference. I was patient and put them together for bits of "supervised" time that was increased over time. I won't lie to you: it was a huge pain for me. But it paid off for all but one bird...my Brabanter. She got hammered early on, damaging her eyesight, and was never accepted, just constantly attacked and abused. There were a couple of hens that would go out of their way to pursue her and I am confident they would have killed her if I persisted. Unfortunately, she is now blind in one eye and is not a thriving bird. However, she is content and lays fairly regularly for me. I keep her in a large dog kennel cage within the coop and make sure she gets outside time. My lavender orp is her roost buddy, although the orp is removed from the cage and allowed to be part of the flock during the entire day. I've got a routine down pat, and it works, but would be soooo nice if I didn't have to keep the Brabanter separated. If I didn't care about her, I would toss her in with the others...but I DO and I am confident that this would result in her death, which I am not willing to see happen at the expense of my routine being easier. Good luck elroddo. I have gotten advice to integrate them in the evening on the roost. You can try that if you are able to check on them very early in the morning to make sure everyone is OK.

TOB

 

[Lynzi777]

I am so far out of the loop (coop?) here! Lynzi - you made the move back to Connecticut? I hope things are falling into place for you and the family, including your chickens. I feel badly I missed such a significant chunk of time here over the course of the summer. Happy that you are still keeping in touch with us New Yawkers!

TOB

Yes, TOB we are! Not too happy about it, missing NY a LOT! CT is so expensive, we're paying double for half of what we had in NY. I told DH we WILL live back in NY someday. I miss it so much, I miss the mountains, I miss all the scenery, of course all the great friends I made too. But we're making the best of where we are right now. I have my birds so that's keeping me busy while the kids are in the school. My FIL is building me a more stable run so I don't have worry in the winter. Pics to come! I hope it's done this weekend.

Well after trying to place a bird or two at a time over the fence and into Stella and Ella's run, I realize they are not very welcoming to newcomers. So, since they didn't want any newbies in THEIR space, I put them in the Sizzle/Silkie pen! That went much smoother! They pecked at a few of them but them didn't full on attack them like they were in their own pen. So I moved 5 of the silkies into their pen because those 5 are going to be separated out into their own breeding pen this weekend. I'm picking up a rabbit hutch/chicken coop from someone an hour from here but they only want $50 for it! It was never used! It for almost $200 on Amazon. Had to grab that while I could. It's nice cuz it has the coop in the middle and then two runs on the side of it. I figure it would be perfect for the 5 silkies I want to separate out. Here's the link to the one on amazon that is basically what I'm getting:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AMRWT1E?psc=1

And then when I'm not worried about breeding I can use it as a grow out pen for young chicks when the feather out.

 

[pharmchickrnmom]

Evening all. Got 6 lawn bags of nice, dry fluffy pine needles stashed away in the garage and another 3 inches put into the silkie run. Got it all done by lunchtime and glad that I did because the wind picked up something fierce. I did let all the silkies out this morning while I was out and kept an eye on them from the road where I was raking. My neighbors driveway yielded 4 bags and she was happy they were gone. Gave her some eggs as well while she and young master Timothy were over visiting with the chickens. He loves those chickens. While I was out talking to her I noticed that both The Duke and Rooster Cogburn went after the dominate hens from the big coop. These girls are pushy and pretty much rule Clyde but these boys were having none of it. I will have to keep an eye on the integration once I cull clyde and the non-layers (which these girls are). I know that Louise gets into it with The Duke as well and she wont give up. Dh has already had to put a stop to a fight. Not sure how all this is going to play out but I do know that she will lose if it happens when Im not around. Rooster pretty much backs up his brother in everything. The Duke is quick to correct him, however, if he steps out of line or takes liberties that arent his to take. Life with chickens is never dull.

Eowyn and Galadriel are starting to resign themselves to the fact that there are two more girls in the coop. The girls were in the nest box that they usually sleep in so they went in the other one. Legolas was the smart one. He opted to roost on the cover over the boxes. Guess he wanted to be sure to stay out of any wife drama that might come up! He is tolerating the newbies but really hasnt bonded to them yet. They are still too young to be of any real interest to him. I expect that will change come spring. I am pretty sure there is a fifty fifty split in the other silkie coop of boys to girls. Of course, I have been fooled before. I am hoping that this year will be a better year for hatching silkies.

My tomatoes are starting to turn sitting on my table. Cant wait to eat them. Took the ac out of the windows. I dont think I will be needing it in the near future. Working hard on my nephews afghan. I have two more to do after this one is done. Keeps me busy.

Have a good evening everyone!

 

[Tough Old Bird]

Yes, TOB we are! Not too happy about it, missing NY a LOT! CT is so expensive, we're paying double for half of what we had in NY. I told DH we WILL live back in NY someday. I miss it so much, I miss the mountains, I miss all the scenery, of course all the great friends I made too. But we're making the best of where we are right now. I have my birds so that's keeping me busy while the kids are in the school. My FIL is building me a more stable run so I don't have worry in the winter. Pics to come! I hope it's done this weekend.

Well after trying to place a bird or two at a time over the fence and into Stella and Ella's run, I realize they are not very welcoming to newcomers. So, since they didn't want any newbies in THEIR space, I put them in the Sizzle/Silkie pen! That went much smoother! They pecked at a few of them but them didn't full on attack them like they were in their own pen. So I moved 5 of the silkies into their pen because those 5 are going to be separated out into their own breeding pen this weekend. I'm picking up a rabbit hutch/chicken coop from someone an hour from here but they only want $50 for it! It was never used! It for almost $200 on Amazon. Had to grab that while I could. It's nice cuz it has the coop in the middle and then two runs on the side of it. I figure it would be perfect for the 5 silkies I want to separate out. Here's the link to the one on amazon that is basically what I'm getting:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AMRWT1E?psc=1

And then when I'm not worried about breeding I can use it as a grow out pen for young chicks when the feather out.

I remember your saying you didn't want to go back to CT......are you still in a rural area at least? You must have some room around you if you're able to have the birds. Hoping it all works out and that the whole family adjusts well.

That hutch looks like a steal for $50 -- never used! Wow. Be safe driving to pick it up.

Looking forward to seeing the pics of the new run. Nice that your FIL is handy and nice enough to build that for you!

TOB

 

[Gramma Chick]

Anyone had trouble mixing 2 different age groups of chickens together? My big girls (8 SLW) are around 18 weeks old, while my little girls ( 1 columbian and 4 GLW) are maybe 12 weeks old, and I tried putting them together and the big girls attacked the first one they saw. I then put them in a run next to the big girls run for a week, then tried again. After 3 days of the little girls being scared to death and basically being chased back into the coop anytime they came out I reseperated them. That was a week ago. I'm wondering if I should try again, or wait for them to get bigger so the big girls don't intimidate them as much.

the babies learned to be afraid of the big girls ....it will probably always be so ...
If you have space I would keep them separate till they are bigger ...& can stick up for themselves .
4 weeks is a lot of difference in chick growth
We had a similar situation . We added older hens to a young flock . We had 2 different flocks till we got a Roo...he blended them all together

 

[rancher hicks]

I think my husband did just that at my mom's house when we put a TV in her bedroom for her. Did you try it yet? If not, I'll ask him when he gets home later to make sure I'm not "mis-remembering", lol! Hope your wife is doing well these days, Rancher?

TOB

No not yet.