So I had two barnevelders, 4.5 years of age, one of them died suddenly three weeks ago, leaving one on her own. I went out and got four new ladies, 3 bantams and a LF Polish. On the advice of everything I've read plus the guy at the poultry store, I just added the new 4 in with the Barnie straight away (small space, don't have anywhere to quarantine).
The barnie not surprisingly chased them around a bit, but while the 3 bantams ran away, the Polish seemed to be in shock from the journey, and just sat there. The barnie very quickly noticed this and began to really go at the poor thing, drawing blood on her head, so I had to separate them before she killed it.
I built a temporary run inside the walk-in-run, with a second coop for the barnie, so they are in the same space but she can't get to them. The Polish recovered from the shock by the following day (genuinely thought we might lose her overnight), and the four new ones get on fine, but whenever the Polish gets close to the dividing wire, the barnie is still diving over and trying to peck at her, and stalks up and down by her - she's not bothered by the other three. I am going to extend the run a bit and put in a proper divider, but is it possible that the barnie will eventually calm down so I can integrate them properly? She's just so aggressive towards this totally inoffensive, and frankly daft Polish. Its only been a little over two weeks so far.
If I do have to keep them permanently separated, will the barnie be ok on her own - I know keeping one on their own isn't recommended, but I'm not sure if this counts as on her own as there are chickens just the other side of the chicken wire!
The barnie not surprisingly chased them around a bit, but while the 3 bantams ran away, the Polish seemed to be in shock from the journey, and just sat there. The barnie very quickly noticed this and began to really go at the poor thing, drawing blood on her head, so I had to separate them before she killed it.
I built a temporary run inside the walk-in-run, with a second coop for the barnie, so they are in the same space but she can't get to them. The Polish recovered from the shock by the following day (genuinely thought we might lose her overnight), and the four new ones get on fine, but whenever the Polish gets close to the dividing wire, the barnie is still diving over and trying to peck at her, and stalks up and down by her - she's not bothered by the other three. I am going to extend the run a bit and put in a proper divider, but is it possible that the barnie will eventually calm down so I can integrate them properly? She's just so aggressive towards this totally inoffensive, and frankly daft Polish. Its only been a little over two weeks so far.
If I do have to keep them permanently separated, will the barnie be ok on her own - I know keeping one on their own isn't recommended, but I'm not sure if this counts as on her own as there are chickens just the other side of the chicken wire!