East Texas Chicken Lover

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Chicky Love

Chicky Love

Hatching
5 Years
Joined
May 18, 2014
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Points
7
Location
Whitehouse, TX
I just now registered at this site but have been using it for research for over a year. We are new to chickens and we love them!!! Especially my 13 year old daughter, she has become our resident chicken keeper. We got our girls in the beginning of February as 13 week old pullets. 2 Australorps and 4 Americanas. Since then we have purchased 5 chicks but lost 2, not sure exactly what the remaining are yet. I think 2 are Sicilian Butter cups and the other is a buff colored with a few dark colored feathers, she isn't as orange as a Buff Orpington but she's not white either. We keep the chickens in the coop when we are gone and let them free range when we are home in the afternoon. My husband built an amazing watering system and feeder so I am not out there every day refilling every thing. Our older girls are laying and are fun to watch do "chicken things". Happy posting and chicken raising!
 
Hi all im new to the site and new to having chickens.
I started with two chickens at seven weeks old. A friend of mine gave me them, he has loads. We didnt know what sex they were and got on great for the first couple of weeks, then one got really aggressive and did alot of damage to the other, so we gave that one back. We then got an ex battary hen (ive called her queenie) shes been with us now for about two months. The other one is male hes called rocky. Shes the boss and has put rocky in his place (pecking order) she still lays eggs we get one a day from her. We have just got two more hens five weeks old two days ago goldie and ginger. Goldie is having a bad time at the moment as queenie is being very aggressive with her. Rocky pecks them but not very hard but queenie is taking alot of feathers out with being so brutal when she pecks. We pick the babys up when shes been very aggressive and her aswell and all three of them snuggle up and doze off. When we put them back down shes fine with them for an hour or so and then shes of again. Does anyone have any ideas or help to make this stituation go any smoother please.
 
Alright
welcome-byc.gif
great to have you joining the BYC flock
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BYC has a very useful learning center
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Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! Sounds like you have a nice little flock! If you want to try and figure out what your girls are you could post pictures in the What Breed/Gender forum www.backyardchickens.com/f/15/what-breed-or-gender-is-this

dawn EF, you can't just put strange chickens together and especially not just put young chicks in with adult birds or they will usually pick on them and can even kill the new ones. With chicks it is best to wait until they are about the same size as the older ones, in both cases a long period of time where they can see and interact with each and kind of establish their pecking order behind wire usually works well, ie if you can separate your coop/ run into sections or keep the new birds in a cage inside the coop. There is a nice article on combining flocks in the Learning Center you might want to check out https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock
 
dawnEF said:
Hi all im new to the site and new to having chickens.
I started with two chickens at seven weeks old. A friend of mine gave me them, he has loads. We didnt know what sex they were and got on great for the first couple of weeks, then one got really aggressive and did alot of damage to the other, so we gave that one back. We then got an ex battary hen (ive called her queenie) shes been with us now for about two months. The other one is male hes called rocky. Shes the boss and has put rocky in his place (pecking order) she still lays eggs we get one a day from her. We have just got two more hens five weeks old two days ago goldie and ginger. Goldie is having a bad time at the moment as queenie is being very aggressive with her. Rocky pecks them but not very hard but queenie is taking alot of feathers out with being so brutal when she pecks. We pick the babys up when shes been very aggressive and her aswell and all three of them snuggle up and doze off. When we put them back down shes fine with them for an hour or so and then shes of again. Does anyone have any ideas or help to make this stituation go any smoother please.
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Hello there and welcome to BYC!

Kelsie X2 You need to mix in new birds much slower, over about a 3 week period of time. You can't just throw new birds into an existing flock or there could be injuries or even death. Keep the new birds in a cage or fenced off area but within the flock at all times. Everybody sees, nobody touches. Leave them this way for about 3 weeks. This usually allows the pecking order to be worked out from behind wire, at least much of it. Then come mixing day, there is far less if any aggression. Of course watch closely that day and all the next week. And always intervene if it turns bloody.

Good luck with your new birds and welcome to our flock!
 
Welcome to BYC
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Glad you joined us!
 
Thanks everyone for the welcomes. And thanks for the advice. I will do what yous have said as i do have the area fenched of and rocky amd queenie do live being out in my back yard. I will keep them seperated. They have their own bed aswell at night.
Thanks again you've all been very kind and im so glad ive found this site :-)
 

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