Well, things seem to be going okay. I actually have her out in the same coop and pen with the big group today.....since they moved into their new huge run (16x24 with an extra little 8x8 section coming off one side). It is full of shin high grass and weeds and bugs and good stuff and connected to the 8x8 coop, so everyone is distracted and she can always go into the coop and up on the roosts if need be. She had stayed in the coop (had to lay her egg) as of the last time I was out there, and was in there with a couple of the cochins and one leghorn and there were no problems at all. The rooster was giving her a hard time earlier, but nothing too dangerous.....more seemed like him starting to feel the hormones than anything else.
I can't imagine doing this in a small space. I think if I was trying to integrate her back in that same small 8x8 pen, it would have never worked out. According to the whole 10 sq ft per chicken outside space, I could have 45 chickens in this new run. 10 seems to be a great fit and I plan on allowing the other 7 to add to this group eventually, although that will then also include the current 8x8 run.
Being able to free range them in the yard together was a huge help to allow them to "be together" without being STUCK together. Sometimes she would have to run 30 or 40 feet to get one of the other off her tailfeathers, but she had more than enough space to do so. They still will come after her and peck her in the head, but it looks like regular pecking order stuff, and then new run is big enough to allow her room to run off.
She did get to meet her prospective boyfriends yesterday. She was the most interested in the new young chickens (who moved into their old pen) than the other ones. She is the red squatter (haha). She may have just been thrilled at the idea of someone LOWER than her on the pecking order.
And she did get to finally start hanging out closer with these guys the last couple days. (she is the red girl in the middle)
I do have to say that my little divider in the coop last night FAILED and all 7 of the younguns (12 week olds) got loose with this older group. No problem quarantine wise as I have had them in my brooder shed for 12 weeks, and got them as couple day olds from a local feed store, shipped from a hatchery. But they were supposed to be separated from each other by a divider in the coop and it failed so they all mingled for the first hour or two of daylight. When I went to open the coop, this lone girl was sitting up on a roost with two of the younguns next to her. It was pretty funny. Everyone was getting along surprisingly well.
