it has amazed me how long it takes me to learn about chicken behaviors even having had them for 8 years. my newest bunch of chicks were introduced to grown ups when they were about 5 weeks old(which scared me but...)and everyone seemed to solve their seniority issues OK. moved the chicks(at 8 weeks of age) in with adults and after a handful of days the chicks were LEARNING begging behaviors from the adults. traditionally I kept the chicks away from the adults until they were almost the same size but am so overpopulated now I wanted to simplify cleaning so I moved them all in together. the big girls were wonderful at being just a little hen pecky. so now these babies are just as obnoxious as the hens. when I waited before ,the younger pullets were not familiar with begging and were frightened of me handfeeding them. so its shocking to have 19 chickens chasing me when I go to barn to feed the horse. they'll probably overpower me soon and would love to see a video of that.
