Had to seperate the new 3 month olds from the 6 month olds.

[yolk-a-motive]

The 3 months olds are in the coop with food and water and the meanies are in the run with food and water.
Not sure my 3 month Americauna is going to make it. Wont lift its head. The her little Orpington buddy is sitting in a nest box with it. It ate and drank a bit by hand.
My RIR girl is nasty to it. Follows it everywhere and corners it and pecks it...feathers flying. So hard to watch. Thinking maybe keep them separated till evening and then put them in the coop together, but in the daytime keep them separated during the day until the little ones get bigger than retry

... any advice?
I know there is a need to establish pecking order but based on size I dont think there is any question of the pecking order, but how to get them not to kill the other ones!


All 4 hens are our only birds and all are all new to us as of yesterday....
this chicken thing is stressful!

 

[donrae]

There's still quite a size difference at this age. I'd wait another month, then try. The littles will be about the same size as the bigs then. There'll still be lots of issues, but not as bad.

How much space do you have? That's very important in how the older hens accept the younger.

 

[yolk-a-motive]

Thanks! The coop and run is 4X12...tractor style with the coop being just over 4X4. I hope the little guys grow fast : )

 

[donrae]

With the smaller coop and long narrow run, there's not much space for the littles to get away from the big girls. When you try again, try putting things up to break line of sight in the run, even just a piece of plywood leaned against the side. This gives the littles something to hide behind and get away from the mean girls.

 

[yolk-a-motive]

Thanks! We put the all 4 hens on the roost last night and this morning separated them again and so far I thinks its going much better. Also yesterday my 2 kids sat in the run each holding the 2 younger ones and when the big ones came to peck at the little ones my kids pushed them away and it seems to have had some affect on the older hens leaving the younger ones alone or at least not pecking at them to the extent they were yesterday. And the 2 younger ones who are much less tame come running to hid behind the kids when they are scared. I told my kids that they must think they are the rooster now : )