I’ll bet your chicks, like mine due to how I’m set up, won’t integrate until they’re at point of lay. All you need to do right now is give them a safe place to live and play in view of the big girls so they don’t get bothered too much. Within a week or two there will be relative peace, but they will go about their business as two separate little flocks. Until the new chicks start to lay- then they’ll actually become one flock.
Thank you everyone for your condolences. And my sympathies to everyone else who lost beloved chickens and other members of their family lately, both human and pets.
Warning - more discussion about Goldy’s death.
I have watched the cam footage of the attack(s) on Goldy several times. I know it is probably wishful thinking, or me seeing what I want to see, but in some ways it almost seems like they knew she was sick and that it was a mercy killing. Only the other hens that I got the same time as her participated, not Speedy or any of the Wyandottes. And they targeted just her head. Although I think I spotted some mounting behavior as well, which I have never seen any of them do before.
Crystal seemed to stop the attacks when Goldy stopped moving. In fact, Scarlett came out of it with some nasty pecks on her comb and some blood on the top of her head. Either from getting caught in the crossfire, or from Crystal pecking her several times when she was still threatening Goldy. But Crystal is also the one who would go back every now and then and grab Goldy by the head, and when that would make her start to struggle a little Crystal would start the attack again.
We laid Goldy to rest today under some trees, with the tip of a branch that had a few leaves on it, and the top portion of some grass that had gone to seed. She loved those seed pods. I kept a few of her ruffled golden tail feathers, and her yellow leg band.
PS @Pastel the Rooster
I wanted to do a simple necropsy on her, to confirm if I was right about the swelling in her abdomen being ascites, and maybe see the cause. I also considered doing a “practice” crop surgery. So that maybe some good could have come from her death. But I didn’t think of it until after I went to bed, and by this morning she was too stiff.
That is a lovely place to rest. Will you bury her or leave her?
I don’t doubt the attacking chickens could have complex reasons for their actions- it’s interesting that you are able to go back in the footage and see that it may not have been thoughtless at all. If perhaps still brutal.
We need to speak to Management.
Last Wednesday I discovered that my chickens had mites. Poor girls- I check them regularly, but it turns out the mites are not evenly distributed, and so had me fooled. Dottie and Fez were the hardest hit, while Whiskey and Albert had none detectable, for example. I ordered the demiter (elector psp), it arrived a couple of days ago, and today was Bath day! I used a first bucket of warm water to get them waterlogged/bums cleaned, then the second one was the medicated dip.
Enjoy! Soggy chickens galor:
Becky
Perry
Quincy
Dottie
Albert
Whiskey
Quincy visiting with Fez, planning to drink her bath water.
Quincy and Fez again
Lmao they were so confused. They didn’t even have it in them to be mad at me- they didn’t even complain! Not once! It’s like their brains stalled out and they were just walking around, dripping, going “…what is going on?”.
We need to speak to Management.
Last Wednesday I discovered that my chickens had mites. Poor girls- I check them regularly, but it turns out the mites are not evenly distributed, and so had me fooled. Dottie and Fez were the hardest hit, while Whiskey and Albert had none detectable, for example. I ordered the demiter (elector psp), it arrived a couple of days ago, and today was Bath day! I used a first bucket of warm water to get them waterlogged/bums cleaned, then the second one was the medicated dip.
View attachment 3850991
Lmao they were so confused. They didn’t even have it in them to be mad at me- they didn’t even complain! Not once! It’s like their brains stalled out and they were just walking around, dripping, going “…what is going on?”.
Seems the last chick born early this morning around 5am has some mobility issues. I have consulted and chatted with some people on here and it was suggested that she be popped back into the incubator for a few hrs to sleep and get stronger.
So that’s whats happening now, if she is no better by morning I will bring her and a friend back here and put some hobbles on her to try and get her legs straightened out.
We need to speak to Management.
Last Wednesday I discovered that my chickens had mites. Poor girls- I check them regularly, but it turns out the mites are not evenly distributed, and so had me fooled. Dottie and Fez were the hardest hit, while Whiskey and Albert had none detectable, for example. I ordered the demiter (elector psp), it arrived a couple of days ago, and today was Bath day! I used a first bucket of warm water to get them waterlogged/bums cleaned, then the second one was the medicated dip.
View attachment 3850991
Lmao they were so confused. They didn’t even have it in them to be mad at me- they didn’t even complain! Not once! It’s like their brains stalled out and they were just walking around, dripping, going “…what is going on?”.
That is a lovely place to rest. Will you bury her or leave her?
I don’t doubt the attacking chickens could have complex reasons for their actions- it’s interesting that you are able to go back in the footage and see that it may not have been thoughtless at all. If perhaps still brutal.
@TX Chick Noob
Personally I'd be checking over and over, which chicken instigated the attack and kept going back.
It's only my thoughts , I think it could happen again. If it were me I'd keep them from the rest they are instigating the others into violent behaviour.
When Agatha was ill, nothing like this happened, on the contrary most kept their distance and flexi became supportive.
Screw u. Maybe one of you can come over and feed the little devil darlings I have, while I continue on with my life, and not be so featherly handicapped!
