MrKnittle
Chirping
Hi all!
I let one of my broody hens hatch out eggs from her and the three other girls. They all hatched Wednesday morning and are doing great. I'm planning on keeping them if they are hens and possibly hatching more in the future. There are currently one drake, four hens, and five ducklings. There's a bit of territory issue right now with the mama, the dad, and the lowest girl on the pecking order. No violence or harm towards the ducklings, but mama is very verbal and charging the other ducks, and dad is nipping the lowest girl for no reason. I've planned on rebuilding the duck house/coop since last fall. I'm implementing more simplicity, easier maintenance, and more room. I'm thinking of building a couple of modular box coops with slanted roofs that connect to a centralized run. If that works well, I can always expand the box coops or add more.
My question is, will this break up the flock into sub-flocks and cause more issues with aggression between them or will it help calm them down with more space to get out of each other's way? I would eventually like to ramp up egg production and incubating, so I am trying to avoid any pitfalls.
I let one of my broody hens hatch out eggs from her and the three other girls. They all hatched Wednesday morning and are doing great. I'm planning on keeping them if they are hens and possibly hatching more in the future. There are currently one drake, four hens, and five ducklings. There's a bit of territory issue right now with the mama, the dad, and the lowest girl on the pecking order. No violence or harm towards the ducklings, but mama is very verbal and charging the other ducks, and dad is nipping the lowest girl for no reason. I've planned on rebuilding the duck house/coop since last fall. I'm implementing more simplicity, easier maintenance, and more room. I'm thinking of building a couple of modular box coops with slanted roofs that connect to a centralized run. If that works well, I can always expand the box coops or add more.
My question is, will this break up the flock into sub-flocks and cause more issues with aggression between them or will it help calm them down with more space to get out of each other's way? I would eventually like to ramp up egg production and incubating, so I am trying to avoid any pitfalls.