Chickens don't like each other.

[AnaD]

I have three 16 WO pullets and three 10 WO pullets and three 5 WO ducklings. My younger pullets do not want anything to do with the older ones. They wont go to their coop at night and choose to sleep with the ducklings. It has been about two or three weeks of trying to force the chicks into their part of the coop (by picking each up and depositing them onto the roost), but everynight I go to lock up they are squeezed in tight with the ducklings. Will they ever get along with my older chickens? Should I just convert the duck hut and add a roost? The older ones don't pick on them too much more then trying to herd them into one area or another.
Is it normal for chickens not to socialize together and stick to their own particular....cliques?

 

[Fred's Hens]

The groups are large enough to have likely formed their own societies. 16 older ones likely formed their flock, their pecking order before the little ones ever came along. The little ones, likewise, are a substantial society of their own and were brooded together? Forming their own pecking order?

Thus, you really have two flocks, it appears. Short of giving them their own coop, they are likely to stay grouped for the foreseeable future. If they get along, that's good enough for now. Once they are all older, it should not matter quite as much as it does now. We only had ducks once, 50 years ago, so I can tell you little about them or if they should be buddies with the chicks.

 

[AnaD]

Sorry. All the numbers are confusing. I have 3 (16 week old pullets) 3 (9 week old pullets) and 3 (6 week old ducklings)

sorry!

 

[Fred's Hens]

Ah, thanks for helping me out. Still, the groupings are solidly formed, it seems.

 

[1muttsfan]

Put them all in the coop together for several days without letting them out, they will quickly get used to each other. Chickens are always wary of NEW and DIFFERENT, so once it is no longer new or different they will be fine. It would be harder if you were just introducing one new bird.