Chaos in the hen house! Need to create peace!

[ArthurFleck]

Thanks for your response! It’s just the one silkie we bought a couple weeks ago that has gotten depressed from being alone. The chicks outside we’ve had since they were day olds are happy as can be! They just aren’t very friendly, especially not to her. I guess I was hoping for the best in creating a new family for her with two 3 week old chicks... now everyone is in separate sleeping quarters.

Oh well then it might take awhile for them to adjust and find their place in the flock, it happened to me to when I got a new hen but they eventually settled

 

[cluelesschickmother]

Not quite sure about the other silkies being depressed but it's probably since the babies are already older, she isn't used to it and just thinks that they are trying to invade her area. If you want to resolve that you're probably going to want to buy some fertile hatching eggs for her to buy so that she can hatch them on her own. I had the same problem when I tried introducing my 3 week old chicks to one of the hens

Sorry I misspoke, I have three cockerels and one pullet outside that were all raised together and are 13 weeks. The only depressed bird is our 5 1/2 month old docile show pullet.

It could be that she doesn’t like the babies because they are three weeks but it seems more likely that she’s just not broody yet (she doesn’t even lay) and also that they invaded her one safe space.

I just had some sort of fictional fantasy of her taking them under her wings and loving them and the chicks did run right under her for love!! It was adorable for about a minute... before she started screaming. Nice to hear you’ve had a hen reject adorable chicks as well! I feel like we are just doing everything wrong!

 

[LaFleche]

I feel like we are just doing everything wrong!

It is a learning curve so don't feel miserable about it.

Some hens adopt about everything without even being broody and others just won't.

 

[cluelesschickmother]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.
It takes MONTHS, not weeks for birds to form a cohesive flock.
A Silkie, nor any other chicken for that matter, is not going to just take to new chicks because their breed is known for being good mothers. They HAVE to be broody and then they have to have been broody for at least 2 weeks to pull that off. And rarely will they accept a chick much older than three days old.
I recommend that you start a new thread in the Managing My Flock Forum and post lots of pictures of your setup. The number one resource chickens need to form a new flock is SPACE! Lots of other things to do in the run other than pummel thy flock mate and multiple food and water stations help too.

When I am integrating newly broody weened chicks into the flock, I literally put little piles of food all over their area in addition to filling my 20' equivalent length feed troughs so everyone can find a spot to get something to eat. I have them penned in a 1/3 acre area with the coop and run and lots and lots of places to go hang out and scratch around and dust bathe. I have a current tyrant in the spring batch of pullets and cockerels who literally chases down my little lone hatch chick and her slightly older bantam cousins and I believe if she could get to them would scalp them. She can't because they have too many places to get away and hide. And they are slowly working their way into the main flock.

That’s very good and reassuring insight, thank you! I think I’ll give up on the (very adorable) fantasy of trying to have her mother these chicks. As of now, I have her outside in the chicken run with the other four 13 week flock (3 cockerels and 1 pullet).

Everything seems to be going well, so I’ll try putting her in the coop tonight (inside her cage). I just worry about her being cold after being in our warm house for the last couple weeks AND not being able to cuddle for warmth with the rest of them. It’ll be 38 degrees tonight here! But she is almost 6 months and fully feather? Will the environmental change be too shocking to her system? Do you think it is a good idea to put her outside tonight? I’m not sure where else to put her since she can’t go into the green room with the chicks...

 

[yakitori]

Chickens will be chickens. They need to establish their pecking order to have peace. I just integrated three silkies into my run with 5 regular sized pullets. but they are 8 weeks younger, so they don't get to free range with the 15 week olds.I started with putting two silkies in, and then one week later added a third. Since they are bantams and sooo much smaller, I was worried they would just get trampled. for the first three days, I had them in a pen inside the run, so they can familiarize with each other. Then I let the big girls into the pen, one at a time. I supervised the interactions, just incase something got out of hand, but didn't actually need to intervene in the end, they all got their pecks in and no one was worse for wear. In the end, my paint silkie mix got the most picked on, so you would think she wouldn't pick on others right? wrong! I brought in a new black silkie the following week, they were actually brood mates before. Once the new comer was in the pen, paint pecked the heck out of new silkie! It's been three days now, and all has settled down save for the occasional peck. I leave them to sort it out, as long as they have full crops and are active, I don't worry about bullying, or try to intervene. Chickens are not people, they do things that don't make sense to us, but for them it's necessary and instinctual.

Here's a video of paint silkie mix being pecked. The BSL doesn't actually peck very hard, these birds are just good at being drama queens She still gets pecked on by one russian orloff, who is at the bottom of the pecking order. I read that the birds who are at the bottom are usually the most vicious to new comers, so it does make sense.

 

[TwoCrows]

Chickens will be chickens. They need to establish their pecking order to have peace. I just integrated three silkies into my run with 5 regular sized pullets. but they are 8 weeks younger, so they don't get to free range with the 15 week olds.I started with putting two silkies in, and then one week later added a third. Since they are bantams and sooo much smaller, I was worried they would just get trampled. for the first three days, I had them in a pen inside the run, so they can familiarize with each other. Then I let the big girls into the pen, one at a time. I supervised the interactions, just incase something got out of hand, but didn't actually need to intervene in the end, they all got their pecks in and no one was worse for wear. In the end first my paint silkie mix got the most picked on, so you would think she wouldn't pick on others right? wrong! I brought in a new black silkie the following week, they were actually brood mates before. Once the new comer was in the pen, paint pecked the heck out of new silkie! It's been three days now, and all has settled down save for the occasional peck. I leave them to sort it out, as long as they have full crops and are active, I don't worry about bullying, or try to intervene. Chickens are not people, they do things that don't make sense to us, but for them it's necessary and instinctual.

Here's a video of paint silkie mix being pecked. The BSL doesn't actually peck very hard, these birds are just good at being drama queens She still gets pecked on by one russian orloff, who is at the bottom of the pecking order. I read that the birds who are at the bottom are usually the most vicious to new comers, so it does make sense.

Eventually the little one will probably learn to avoid the meanie and run when she gets too close.

 

[yakitori]

Eventually the little one will probably learn to avoid the meanie and run when she gets too close.

They already do!

 

[drumstick diva]

Welcome to Backyard Chickens. Thank you for joining the flock.

 

[yakitori]

Will the environmental change be too shocking to her system? Do you think it is a good idea to put her outside tonight?

She should be fine. in either the green room or the coop once the lights are off, they can’t see and therefore stop bickering until yhe next day. If you can control what time the lights come on in the room with the chicks, I would say put her in there, and turn off the lights right away. If you put her in the coop, I wouldn’t separate her so she could snuggle up to everyone else for warmth. Check on them at first light
to see if there is bullying, I doubt there would be, but you can never be too careful..

 

[cluelesschickmother]

She should be fine. in either the green room or the coop once the lights are off, they can’t see and therefore stop bickering until yhe next day. If you can control what time the lights come on in the room with the chicks, I would say put her in there, and turn off the lights right away. If you put her in the coop, I wouldn’t separate her so she could snuggle up to everyone else for warmth. Check on them at first light
to see if there is bullying, I doubt there would be, but you can never be too careful..

Thank you so much for your advice! I initially put her in a cage (with bedding and food) in the coop but now have her with the others. She tucked right in with them - she must be so happy!

It probably would have been too cold for her first night out there by herself (35 degrees!). Hopefully everything will be okay at 8am when we check on them...