I'm sorry if this is long, but I want your opinions so I want to give you a lot of detail.
About a month ago, we had a hawk take out two of my girls, which took us down to 5 ladies. We bought three 11-week-old Easter Eggers, who seem very large for their age, on Nov 30 (17 days ago). I have had them next door in their own coop, so they could see and interact with the flock through the fence, but with the pretty cold weather in Wisconsin right now, everyone seemed to be staying inside and not interacting. I will admit that when we first got them, it got super cold for a few days, so on and off I had a dog heat mat under them (hand-me-down), mostly at night and with a thick padding of newspaper on it, which I did not realize was pretty darn warm. (I have tried to leave it off as much as possible if it gets above 25 F or so.) Now I am leaving it off in hopes that they will toughen up and grow better feathers soon. But the external coop is kind of flimsy, not insulated, not a great winter coop, plus cramped for three largish birds.
These three now 13-weekers seem gawky, gangly and REALLY uncoordinated. (When they have gotten out of their cramped coop, flapping their wings sometimes makes them rise in the air and spin around uncontrollably.) The guy I got them from said they had never been outside the barn. I am not sure how much exercise they have ever gotten, but I feel like they need to get in the big coop where they can learn to use the ladder, perch bars, run around in the covered run, and meet the older ladies. I am starting to suspect that they are just big couch-potatoes. (With 8 birds, I have an 8X16 run, so 16 sq feet per bird now). The coop is about 4 X 5, but is about 5 feet tall with 3 different perches and a long ladder.
The other 5 birds are: 2 little bantams (Cara and Joni) that are 16 months old, their mother, a tinier bantam (Ginger) that is probably pushing 4 years old, a black larger bantam (Marilyn) (hatched by Ginger 2 years and 8 months ago) and Farrah, who is a large Americauna from Tru Value HW and is 2 years and 9 months old. (Cara and Joni's father, a black-tailed buff Japanese bantam (from the feed store 10 days old), was raised by Ginger but then later died of illness after impregnating her.)
I have gotten everyone out at the same time to meet over scratch now 4 or 5 days in a row for about an hour. (I wait until the weather warms up to a balmy 28 or 30 F) At first, the older ones pretty much ignored them, or muttered at them. While the older ones are out, I have placed the younger ones into the nesting boxes and they settle down for a nap and cuddle without seeming to want to explore the rest of the coop. I then reached in through the egg door to encourage them to get up and try the ladder or perch bars. That accomplished, I threw a tiny bit of scratch on the floor to get them to go DOWN the ladder or fly down from perch bars. They eyed it but then again, settled down on their feet to stay warm and stayed put. I then put one of them gently down on the middle rung to be closer to the scratch, so she did hop down and start eating. The other two followed suit. But whenever left to their own devices, they seem either incurious or - cold? In any case, they just hunker down in the corner of the back of the coop where I have a radiant plastic heater on the wall and cuddle together.
Both yesterday and today Ginger and Marilyn both made little runs at the (bigger than them) chicks in their coop, and vocalized a lot. Two days ago when the pullets were on perch bars, Ginger actually pecked the one next to her on her feet and drew a little blood. (I am suspecting that Ginger is getting deaf? She might not be able to hear that the pullets still make baby cheeping noises.)
If I do put them together after a few more days of interacting in the yard and trying to get them to learn the layout of the coop and run, my fear is that they will not be welcome in the coop at night and will try to cuddle up together in an old coop inside the run at night. (We can rescue them, but what a hassle - plus poopy knees.) Since it is cold at night, we close the chicken door from roosting time until dog walking time (about 4 pm to 8 am the next day). That leaves a potential of chicken beatings at bedtime and again in the morning before they can escape through the open door. (my second fear.) With them being so dang uncoordinated, it seems perilous. My ladies aren't mean, but these are still relative strangers.
Any tips of what more I can do to ensure a smooth integration? It is so much easier to do this in spring/summer/fall when the chicken door can just be left open for the picked-on to escape.
About a month ago, we had a hawk take out two of my girls, which took us down to 5 ladies. We bought three 11-week-old Easter Eggers, who seem very large for their age, on Nov 30 (17 days ago). I have had them next door in their own coop, so they could see and interact with the flock through the fence, but with the pretty cold weather in Wisconsin right now, everyone seemed to be staying inside and not interacting. I will admit that when we first got them, it got super cold for a few days, so on and off I had a dog heat mat under them (hand-me-down), mostly at night and with a thick padding of newspaper on it, which I did not realize was pretty darn warm. (I have tried to leave it off as much as possible if it gets above 25 F or so.) Now I am leaving it off in hopes that they will toughen up and grow better feathers soon. But the external coop is kind of flimsy, not insulated, not a great winter coop, plus cramped for three largish birds.
These three now 13-weekers seem gawky, gangly and REALLY uncoordinated. (When they have gotten out of their cramped coop, flapping their wings sometimes makes them rise in the air and spin around uncontrollably.) The guy I got them from said they had never been outside the barn. I am not sure how much exercise they have ever gotten, but I feel like they need to get in the big coop where they can learn to use the ladder, perch bars, run around in the covered run, and meet the older ladies. I am starting to suspect that they are just big couch-potatoes. (With 8 birds, I have an 8X16 run, so 16 sq feet per bird now). The coop is about 4 X 5, but is about 5 feet tall with 3 different perches and a long ladder.
The other 5 birds are: 2 little bantams (Cara and Joni) that are 16 months old, their mother, a tinier bantam (Ginger) that is probably pushing 4 years old, a black larger bantam (Marilyn) (hatched by Ginger 2 years and 8 months ago) and Farrah, who is a large Americauna from Tru Value HW and is 2 years and 9 months old. (Cara and Joni's father, a black-tailed buff Japanese bantam (from the feed store 10 days old), was raised by Ginger but then later died of illness after impregnating her.)
I have gotten everyone out at the same time to meet over scratch now 4 or 5 days in a row for about an hour. (I wait until the weather warms up to a balmy 28 or 30 F) At first, the older ones pretty much ignored them, or muttered at them. While the older ones are out, I have placed the younger ones into the nesting boxes and they settle down for a nap and cuddle without seeming to want to explore the rest of the coop. I then reached in through the egg door to encourage them to get up and try the ladder or perch bars. That accomplished, I threw a tiny bit of scratch on the floor to get them to go DOWN the ladder or fly down from perch bars. They eyed it but then again, settled down on their feet to stay warm and stayed put. I then put one of them gently down on the middle rung to be closer to the scratch, so she did hop down and start eating. The other two followed suit. But whenever left to their own devices, they seem either incurious or - cold? In any case, they just hunker down in the corner of the back of the coop where I have a radiant plastic heater on the wall and cuddle together.
Both yesterday and today Ginger and Marilyn both made little runs at the (bigger than them) chicks in their coop, and vocalized a lot. Two days ago when the pullets were on perch bars, Ginger actually pecked the one next to her on her feet and drew a little blood. (I am suspecting that Ginger is getting deaf? She might not be able to hear that the pullets still make baby cheeping noises.)
If I do put them together after a few more days of interacting in the yard and trying to get them to learn the layout of the coop and run, my fear is that they will not be welcome in the coop at night and will try to cuddle up together in an old coop inside the run at night. (We can rescue them, but what a hassle - plus poopy knees.) Since it is cold at night, we close the chicken door from roosting time until dog walking time (about 4 pm to 8 am the next day). That leaves a potential of chicken beatings at bedtime and again in the morning before they can escape through the open door. (my second fear.) With them being so dang uncoordinated, it seems perilous. My ladies aren't mean, but these are still relative strangers.
Any tips of what more I can do to ensure a smooth integration? It is so much easier to do this in spring/summer/fall when the chicken door can just be left open for the picked-on to escape.