Chicken Still Thinks She’s a Duck

[harmonymw]

My EE, Shakira, is still fully integrated in the duck flock. She sleeps on the floor of the duck house between my two SA drakes (Jack and Roosevelt). The three of them are 16 weeks old and were brooded together. She doesn’t swim in the pool, but she perches on the edge while they do. My daughter put her in the chicken coop a couple of nights ago without my knowledge. When I got up at 5, the drakes were at the small fence section their run shares with the chicken coop, quacking. Shakira was on the other side, I swear to god, quacking a drake-type quack. All three were distressed over the whole ordeal and I told my daughter never again. That she has to want to coop with the hens. However, my lead hen (Joan Jett) is starting to get angry that Shakira won’t go to bed with the others. Joan usually waits until all her hens are roosting before she goes into the coop. Lately she’s been squawking at Shakira after all the others are in and trying to chase her in. Then there’s the issue of Jack and Roosevelt eventually trying to mate her. No signs of this yet, but still.

How long should I let this go on? I’ve tried sitting her down and explaining she is a chicken with poor results.

Here she is resting between Jack and Roosevelt, like she does every day.

 

[harmonymw]

Update: She went into the coop on her own tonight! Wooooohoooo!

 

[harmonymw]

Are the chickens picking on her or have they accepted her. Just wondering if that might be causing another reason for her not to want to go in the coop with the chickens.
It does take a while for them to relocate especially if they have been with the ducks since tiny.

She’s right in the middle of the pecking order. Although she has always slept with the ducks, the entire flock free ranges together for 12+ hours a day, so she’s not new to them. She’s completely unaccustomed to roosting-sleeps on the ground with the ducks. I’m hoping she’ll learn by watching as the children yelling “YOU ARE A CHICKEN” doesn’t seem to help. When I pick her up, she rasp-quacks like a drake.

 

[The Phantom]

 

[harmonymw]

Update: Tonight is Shakira’s fifth night sleeping in the chicken coop. As of this evening, she is still not going willingly. I have to pick her up and put her in and she still tries to go flap crazy when she realizes where I’m taking her. Sigh. My lead hen is very frustrated with Shakira’s inability to coop up at the appointed hour.

 

[TSOWOATNKC]

I personally would just put her in the henhouse and leave her there. She’s a literal birdbrain, so she has no clue what’s best for her. She’s a chicken, not a duck; having a “personal identity” of being a duck isn’t cute to me, and it could literally endanger her life if she is mated by a drake. A female duck thinking their a chicken wouldn’t be quite as potentially dangerous. Even a duck with the proper anatomy to be mated by a duck can be killed or seriously injured in the process of mating. The sooner you move her the better. It isn’t like she can go thru species confirmation surgery and turn into a duck. The sooner she’s moved, the sooner she’ll figure out she’s a chicken.

 

[harmonymw]

I personally would just put her in the henhouse and leave her there. She’s a literal birdbrain, so she has no clue what’s best for her. She’s a chicken, not a duck; having a “personal identity” of being a duck isn’t cute to me, and it could literally endanger her life if she is mated by a drake. A female duck thinking their a chicken wouldn’t be quite as potentially dangerous. Even a duck with the proper anatomy to be mated by a duck can be killed or seriously injured in the process of mating. The sooner you move her the better. It isn’t like she can go thru species confirmation surgery and turn into a duck. The sooner she’s moved, the sooner she’ll figure out she’s a chicken.

This is how I was leaning. I also want her to understand where to lay.

 

[TSOWOATNKC]

If she’s mated by a drake, she may not ever be capable of laying period.

 

[Lil Drake40]

Poor thing needs some counciling lol

 

[Miss Lydia]