Added new pullet to flock - wish me luck!

[fargosmom]

Girlish squeal! I know that one! Well, tonight the new girl got her own digs - I couldn't take the stress so I figured out a way to divide the space in the run with an x-pen. She now has her own room, and boy you should have seen how hard the other girls were trying to get at her. I'll leave her in her own space till they give that a rest. If I were heartless I would have just let her fend for herself, but she's just so sweet I couldn't do that to her. I'm such a sucker.

 

[urbanchickmama]

we also introduced 2 new pullets to our flock and it seems to be going just okay. similar to your experience, they are staying relatively seperate from everyone else... although i have noticed that they are moving around more often and will come out from hiding to say hi to me when i go to feed & water everyone... they're also sleeping very close to the rest of the flock, although still a bit away. it's only been a few nights, so i've got hope they'll integrate at some point. they're all just about 8 weeks... so i guess i'd hoped they're still young enough to welcome new members, with no more than the standard pecking order squabbles.

after reading several more posts on the subject though, i wish i had ignored my husbands insistance on no more than two and gotten at least 4...

it's only been a few days and i KNOW the feed store had more from the same batch. is it too late?

 

[fargosmom]

At 8 weeks, and with the numbers you're talking about, you might be ok . . . they probably haven't solidly established who's who yet. But I'm quickly learning that it's all a crap shoot and each situation is going to yield it's own unique result. You just have to try what seems right, keep lots of food and water available, and most important keep a keen eye on the interactions. Follow your gut - if something doesn't feel right, and you make a change and the "feel" is better, how can you be wrong? If we were real farmers with lots of space and lots of birds it would be different - fend for yourself would be a more practical solution, and if someone gets beat up, well that's chicken nature.

But these are pets (at least to me) so I feel like it's my responsibility to help them, as far as my limited understanding of what goes on in their tiny brains will allow. I recognize that they have primitive, reptilian instincts that drive them to do things that I find unacceptable, and in many cases it's really MY expectations that need to be adjusted.

In my case, the pullet I've added is of an unknown age (although I think she's close to the youngest of the other birds), and she's much smaller and lighter than the other birds. Plus she's on her own most of the day (except when I'm visiting with her), with a mixed group of four 4-5 month old pullets and one 2-year-old hen, so she is really at a disadvantage. Adding the divider has made a huge difference. She's still lonely and wants to snuggle up to me if I sit on her roost, but she was brave enough to stand tall and ruffle her feathers at one of the other birds through the fence (till the other bird showed her she's bigger and tougher, and then the kid turned tail

but at least she gave it a try, and didn't get her butt kicked for it). So my NEW plan is to leave her on the other side of the divider until she's put on more size and weight, so she'll have a more equal footing with the other birds. If that takes a month, or two, now that I've made the space workable it really doesn't matter. It just took me thinking outside of MY box to get to a point where I could make the change to the coop that allowed it to become two separate spaces.

So the lesson I've learned today, boys and girls, is to not be too rigid in believing that I'm absolutely right when I make a decision. There's always plan B, and plan C, and . . . .
I also learned that if I come to this forum, and read all the threads and see a common piece of advice, over and over, I should probably follow it instead of trying to trying to second-guess (not to say I won't think about it, but there's a lot of collective wisdom here). Which in this case means: many others have suggested a separate cage inside the coop, for introduction, and that's what I should have started with (and next time I'll add at least 2

)

More updates to follow.

 

[fargosmom]

Well, it's been 10 days since last post. In that time I kept the new girl in her own room in the coop/run, but I let them all range together and I tried HARD to only intervene if I thought she was getting too much bullying. Being a protective mother that was very hard, I must say. But it did get so that I could toss some scratch at my feet and they would all be there together getting their own, and she was for the most part ignored, or pecked a little but not chased away.
So . . . yesterday I took the plunge, "ripped the bandaid off" and took out the coop divider, around midafternoon, and after letting them range a while I brought them all back into the run together, and I sat there with them the rest of the afternoon (yep, I'm dedicated). Gotta say the new girl was not too sure of herself, inside that closed space with all the big girls, but they were for the most part ignoring her, so I made her stay on the ground with them. Every now and then someone would take after her, and if she got cornered I rescued her, and let her sit in my lap for a minute to decompress, and then I put her down on the ground again. If another bird eyed her without any aggression she would still get scared but I did NOT let her jump into my lap (even though it was like seeing your kid ride a bike in traffic for the first time!). She only got to come to me for comfort if she really got pecked, and that only happened once. There are three feeders and two waterers and more food than 30 birds could eat, so they have no excuse for squabbling and for the most part peace reigned supreme! I was so happy, but I had to keep it cool jack just so I didn't upset the energy balance. At around 6 I snuck out and sat outside, observing some more. She wound up taking refuge on one of the roosts in the house for her own comfort, but wasn't CHASED there (

) and then I ran out of emotional steam and went inside. Figured I had to leave the rest up to the chicken gods. Ok, well, yeah - I did check on her after dark and the girls had made her sleep on the roost in the run outside, but at least she wasn't huddled behind a milk crate.
And

this morning she met me at the coop door right there with the rest of the girls, all scrambling for their morning snack! She wasn't brave enough to eat while the girls were eating (which I was prepared for - I brought her a special brekkie of 25 mealworms to get her through the day in case she couldn't get to a feeder), but she did spend her time moving around on the ground and not getting harrassed. And better yet - I got home from work today, and there she is again, with the other girls, at the door! I'm so proud of my baby!! I know all sorts of things can still go wrong, but I feel so much better that she's on her way to being part of the group, where she will ultimately be happier being a real bird than being my lap-chicken.

. . . and tell me, could anyone resist this face? I mean really . . .

Miss Mimzy Borogrove

 

[chezpoulet]

Quote:
Love that photo! She is cute- reminds me of our Muffin who is a blue wheaten Ameraucana. Well the latest news re: Muffin is that she has found a sometimes friend in Chickmunk, who doesn't peck at her AT ALL. (Ironically Chickmunk was the first one who went for blood when we first integrated them.) She sometimes hangs out with Chickmunk, and will roost next to her without issues. When the others get near her, Muffin still does this "squeal and run" business!

I still have to put Muffin back into the run after they are done with free-ranging- she does not seem to want to go inside when the other girls are in there. Unfortunately, she is physically the smallest and has the temperament of a marshmallow, so she will always be the bottom bird. But she is roosting in the same coop, closer to the flock I might say than before, sometimes with Chickmunk as her protector (as long as Chickmunk is between her and the other birds, she is fine).

 

[7L Farm]

Glad to hear theres progress. It takes time but its worth it. But your right I too will never just add one to a flock. My rescued girl is doing well. Keep at it & good luck.

 

[bustermommy]

Everyone says to never add just 1 to a flock, but what if 1 is what's left of the flock? And you need to add more? Does that work ok?

 

[fargosmom]

I have no direct experience but I'd have to guess that if you have one remaining bird from a flock, and introduce a group of new pullets to her in her own established coop, she will do what she can to establish herself as top bird, so there would be the same issues . . . in my case the eldest, only hen accepted the new pullets with a minimum of aggression, and they didn't really challenge her since she's still bigger than they are (although not by much any more).

So I think what I'm saying is, if the only bird is bigger than everyone else, more mature and self-assured, she will probably be fine with a new group, while a smaller, younger, less-self-assured only bird will have problems when put into a group of larger, more mature birds. At least that's been my limited experience with this particular group. Best wishes!

 

[fargosmom]

Here's my final update, for those who care to trace the timeline. Tonight for the first time the new girl was accepted onto the big girls' roost for the night!

Up till now she was sleeping on a perch out in the run - now she gets to sleep in the house with the flock. Right in the middle of the group. I figure this means she's as fully accepted as she's ever going to be. So all told I guess that means the process took around 3-4 weeks. Longer than I'd hoped, but not so bad now that it's all done.

 

[Chick Charm]

I here ya. Our latest blended flock just came recently after a 1 month integration process. All is well now and the pecking order is slowly changing. So Congrats on the success.

Now the next question is......when you going to do it again???