Chicken Still Thinks She’s a Duck

[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.

 

[Lil Drake40]

Poor thing needs some counciling lol

 

[harmonymw]

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

 

[Miss Lydia]

 

[LisaYell]

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.

View attachment 1452204

My chicken is the same way. She doesn't roost with the other chicken and rooster (which they came later). I have 2 female ducks and 2 males. They have been together since we brought them home from the feed store, March 2020. I originally had 4 chickens and 4 ducks but higher powers only let 1 chicken survive and she has been this way ever since. My neighbor gave me another chicken (different breed) and my dog brought home a rooster! They are all in the same pen together. The ducks have never tried mating with her just the female ducks and the rooster has tried mating with her. They all lay eggs in the same spot just at different times of the day. As long as they are getting along and no fighting everything is ok with me!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

If she has imprinted on the ducks, she may never fully transfer onto the chickens. She can't see herself. She can't look into a mirror and say, Oh hey, I don't look like THOSE, I look like THESE, I must actually be a THIS and not a THAT. In her brain she is what she saw around her from her earliest moments after hatch. She may integrate with the chickens if she has no other options, but she may always long to be with her "true," original family, the ducks. I wish her, and you, luck.