help me with my new roo, something strange has happened

[Dar]

I traded a silkie hen yesterday for a polish roo yesterday...

when i brought the roo home i placed him in my indoor pen with my other young chickens, a mix of silkies and EE's

there was a bit of bossing around you know the i am king routine... and he is about a month older then the rest of his new flock (and i am hearing the gasps already... this roo was from a closed flock so i am not worried about quarantining this guy)

anyway.. i come down in the middle of the night to check on our new guy and i see that he has all the EE's in one corner and is sleeping with them and the 2 wee lil silkies are in a corner all by them self under the heat lamp...

whats up with that? soes he not like the silkies cause of the fluff on their head? dude needs to look in the mirror...lol

 

[Ridgerunner]

You did not mention their ages. Since they are huddled in corners in an indoor pen, I'd guess they are quite young still. They may very well be too young to exhibit adult behaviors. Were the slikies and EE's sleeping mixed together before he arrived? Although he is a month older, he may not be the dominant force in the flock yet. Maybe the EE's wanted him to sleep with them. I'd guess he is closer in size to the EE's than the silkies. That may play a part.

In my flock, the same grouping of birds sleep together on the roost in the same general spots every night. I think it's not based so much on breed as on pecking order in the flock. There can be a lot of squabbling, pecking, pushing and crowding until they get it right.

Flock dynamics can be hard to figure out. They don't think like we do. There are a lot of different variables that can make it complicated. I think pecking order does explain a lot of how they interact.

 

[Dar]

sorry forgot the ages...

the polish roo was hatched in early may i think...
EE were in early june
and the silkies were june 14th

they are moving to the out door coop this weekend or next, i needed to build a bigger coop and better run before i send any more chickens out there... my old coop is being torn to the ground and the new one going in its spot.