My girls just won't get along! Some background:
I currently have 7 chickens. 3 of them are 6 month old OEGB x Silkie (supposedly) hens. 3 others are 4 month old pullets of different breeds. Buff brahma bantam, SLW and golden phoenix. The last and littlest is a millefleur d'Uccle pullet of an age somewhere between the two other groups. She hangs out with the younger group. My older hens still have not warmed up to the newer girls. I've had them all since they were only a few days old. We tried introducing the younger ones by putting a bit of chicken wire around a small section of the yard for them to hang out in while the older girls became accustomed to them. Their aggression did not abate. We started to suspect that keeping them apart during free ranging could be part of the problem. So we took the chicken wire down. This was when the chicks were still being kept inside while their new feathering came in. I know that the pecking order needs to be established and I'm ok with that. But when feathers and blood are drawn, I can't help but step in. I painstakingly hold off on interfering until then. They soon grew and we needed to put them in the coop with the others but the older group was still being malicious towards them. Neither my boyfriend nor I could bear the thought of going to let the chickens out and finding our precious tiny silly-fleur mangled. We put up a chicken wire partition in the coop fearing the worst and hoping that living with each other would lessen the aggression over time. So here I am, still trying to keep the peace. What should I do?
I currently have 7 chickens. 3 of them are 6 month old OEGB x Silkie (supposedly) hens. 3 others are 4 month old pullets of different breeds. Buff brahma bantam, SLW and golden phoenix. The last and littlest is a millefleur d'Uccle pullet of an age somewhere between the two other groups. She hangs out with the younger group. My older hens still have not warmed up to the newer girls. I've had them all since they were only a few days old. We tried introducing the younger ones by putting a bit of chicken wire around a small section of the yard for them to hang out in while the older girls became accustomed to them. Their aggression did not abate. We started to suspect that keeping them apart during free ranging could be part of the problem. So we took the chicken wire down. This was when the chicks were still being kept inside while their new feathering came in. I know that the pecking order needs to be established and I'm ok with that. But when feathers and blood are drawn, I can't help but step in. I painstakingly hold off on interfering until then. They soon grew and we needed to put them in the coop with the others but the older group was still being malicious towards them. Neither my boyfriend nor I could bear the thought of going to let the chickens out and finding our precious tiny silly-fleur mangled. We put up a chicken wire partition in the coop fearing the worst and hoping that living with each other would lessen the aggression over time. So here I am, still trying to keep the peace. What should I do?