This season's four chicks are 7 weeks old now. This past weekend, I drove out to a seller who had bantam cochins about six weeks old and a couple a bit older than that.
Kinda thought the six week old chicks would "fit" better with my 7 wk olds at home, and bought two: a charcoal colored one and one that's, I guess, a "blue." Both pullets.
There was only one of the older cochins I would have wanted (I don't want any all white chickens), so I chose the two younger ones so there wouldn't be just ONE "different" chick added to the baby flock in the brooder.
Unfortunately, they were significantly smaller than the four at home, and the feathered feet were apparently a big pecking draw for the LF chicks. The poor little newcomers huddled together in one corner of the brooder. They could eat, but couldn't seem to get to the waterer very often. And the RIR - currently the top of the pecking order - bullied them. So I set 'em up in another Rubbermaid bin "next door."
I'm hoping everybody will get along better, OR the bantams will be better able to get to water when they all go outside and there's more room for everybody to maneuver in the Baby Coop & Pen.
The banty cochins look like fat sparrows wearing bedroom slippers. I'm thinking they will be called Priscilla and Melissa.
(The LF chicks are: RIR - Rhoda, BR - Betsy, Welsummers - Laverne & Shirley.)
Any tips for integrating the two banty cochins and the four LF chicks with my adult flock of out in the Big Chicken run/coop? They've got a couple more weeks to go in the brooders.
Kinda thought the six week old chicks would "fit" better with my 7 wk olds at home, and bought two: a charcoal colored one and one that's, I guess, a "blue." Both pullets.
Unfortunately, they were significantly smaller than the four at home, and the feathered feet were apparently a big pecking draw for the LF chicks. The poor little newcomers huddled together in one corner of the brooder. They could eat, but couldn't seem to get to the waterer very often. And the RIR - currently the top of the pecking order - bullied them. So I set 'em up in another Rubbermaid bin "next door."
I'm hoping everybody will get along better, OR the bantams will be better able to get to water when they all go outside and there's more room for everybody to maneuver in the Baby Coop & Pen.
The banty cochins look like fat sparrows wearing bedroom slippers. I'm thinking they will be called Priscilla and Melissa.
(The LF chicks are: RIR - Rhoda, BR - Betsy, Welsummers - Laverne & Shirley.)
Any tips for integrating the two banty cochins and the four LF chicks with my adult flock of out in the Big Chicken run/coop? They've got a couple more weeks to go in the brooders.
