Aggressive hens...

[v.cyr]

Our hens(BRxBO crosses) are rather aggressive towards anything smaller than them... they consider anything small to be FUPO( Food Until Proven Otherwise)... this has come in handy at times, since the two biggest problems facing chicken keepers in this area, rats and weasels, haven't stood a chance against them as of yet, and only the fastest squirrels or chipmunks manage to steal their scratch...my concern though, is in regards to introducing younger birds... two of our hens almost killed our Brahma roo, Rocky, when we tried to introduce him... admittedly, we were introducing him by himself, and after seeing pics of young Brahmas on here, I am beginning to suspect he may have been a bit younger than some people had guessed, so we will try again in a few weeks... are there any tips on introducing new birds to an overly aggressive flock?...

 

[peepacheep]

Last summer was the first time I brought young chickens, (3 SS), into my flock. I set them up in an adjoining pen at 8 weeks of age and started slowly introducing them, with supervision, at 16 weeks. While the roo kept hen to pullet aggression in check he did not allow the pullets to the morning mash dish until the older hens were done for the first 2 weeks. After that the SS nearly knocked him off the chicken ramp in their rush to food first thing in the morning. FUPO: Food Until Proven Otherwise What a prefect acronym!

 

[v.cyr]

thanks...