Greetings from Sassy Chicken Little

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SassyChickenLtl

SassyChickenLtl

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We and our nine girls (one of whom we suspect is a roo, so really only eight girls in all likelihood) live in Utah and are relatively new to the chicken hood. We love our girls and so frequently reference your comments and advice regarding hen raising tactics. Our ladies are quite spoiled and do feel the reason for our existence is to pamper them. Never looked at myself as a big kernel of corn before! Gotta love it. Looking forward to lots more schooling from you more experienced chickeners.
 
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we need pictures maybe you do look like a big kernel of corn
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Corn is a real treat to chickens but,too much can make them fat while not being nutritionally sound, it also spoils their appetite for their chick feed.
 
Thank you so much for the welcomes! I've learned so much from this site that it is already my favorite. And Drumstick, I do have blonde hair, do you think that counts? :-).

Our current challenge is integrating the three newbies into our existing flock. One of the newbies just may be a roo... The newbies are only a tad smaller than the older girls, so I thought this would be less a problem than it is turning out to be. We had them all together for a week, but no progress was being made. The newbies still weren't allowed to get inside the chicken house, and they weren't even allowed to eat or drink what we put in the run specifically for them! So now, the old guard and the newbies are separated in the run by a wire fence. The newbie who we suspect is a roo sure acts like one. Very aggressive. Meaner than all the girls put together. He/she seems to pick fights with everyone, including the other newbies! Maybe we just have a extremely mean hen, who knows. Once we hear a crow, then we will know for sure.

Any advice as to how to get them all to play nicely together? Or at least tolerate each other and eat, drink and sleep together?
 
Welcome to BYC from California wine country in the Western Sierra Foothills! :frow

My integration process involves a two week "visible segregation" period such as what you are now doing. Two weeks seeing everybody through the safety fence makes the new birds no longer strangers. They get to hear, see, challenge each other, chest bump with the barrier between them, etc. By the time you remove the barrier (but continue to provide multiple feeders and waterers for a while), the Stanger Danger attacks are moot and it will just be enforcing the I Have More Rank Than You tactics.

There will be some chasing, quite a bit of squawking, some feather pulling, some challenging, but there shoukdnt be out-and-out fighting.

The pecking order thing is natural for chickens. It's ugly to us - especially if we have ever been bullied in a schoolyard as kids - but do NOT separate anybody after you integrate them unless there is blood shed. Every separation will cause the pecking order process to start all over again once they have been re-introduced. It just delays what is natural, even if we think it's brutal.

Again, if nobody gets bloody, they're doing well. Do keep extra waterers and feeders for a bit so the newbies can get to it without senior birds blocking every source.
 
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