KIslandGirls
Chirping
- Mar 9, 2022
- 12
- 35
- 56
I have had 7 hens for a bit over a year, they are in their third year and got displaced in a real estate transition, I was wanting to start a flock so I adopted them. This past year, my neighbor's rooster has adopted them as his flock, and spends his days here, Most days everyone free ranges in the yard. One of the hens went broody and I decided to let her try and hatch out some of the eggs. There were issues and only one chick made it. It is now 8 weeks old. As an aside, it looks nothing like the rest of the flock, some Silkie genes got in there somehow... I let the hen raise the chick in the flock and all seemed to be going well until the last week or so... some of the hens are really attacking the young one. So far no blood, but lots of feathers missing from both chicklet and mom. And the young one is pretty afraid to be around the others at all -- I've seen it flee and squeeze under my deck in a space too small for the others to follow. I'm considering setting up an isolation coop for them until it is full sized, but I'd rather let them work it out if they are going to work it out. It's hard for me to get the hens in at night now because the little one does not want to enter at the same time as the others -- usually mom and young one roost before the others if I leave it late enough for them to come in on their own. Can an 8-week old withstand this much aggression?