Thank you!
Thanks for this!Loved you story!
I integrate with "see, don't touch" by my growup pen. Its positioned between my main flock and my waterfowl pen. This way, they can see every bird here that free ranges, but can't be pecked, bullied or starved out by older birds. They stay in the grow up pen until they are of good size, and ready to join the flock they belong to. Minimum of 2 weeks, longer if possible depending on the species.
@Indyshent I somehow missed this post, I am so sorry to hear it. Agree with the HO above, If Coopers "mix" has a prey drive type breed, you may never be able to correct his behavior. malemute, husky breeds have a strong prey drive, and are often a big problem around any poultry. I have had a few German Shepherds that also had high prey aggression towards any type of birds.
Thank you for the wonderfully illustrated post.@leslea
The way pipd described is the way to go - put them where they can see each other but can't be in the same place for several weeks usually. If you don't have divided facilities, you can make a temporary divider by tacking up some of the plastic chicken wire to make a temporary divider. I have a permanent divider inside the hen shed but I would have used the plastic netting if I hadn't. I did use it in the outdoor run to divide off as I was able to cut a second door last year so they could have an exit to go out on part of the run too.
It worked very well, and I didn't let them go out mixed with the others until it was warm enough that they could all go out from the run into the larger area. The larger the area, the easier it is for the youngers to get away should a skuffle insue.
I also tried, for the first couple weeks I was letting them run together, to make a restricted size opening into their divided off area so they could get in but the olders couldn't. Mine ended up being old enough when I let them run together that they were almost as large as the elders so it was hard to keep the smaller adults out of their side. But for the most part it worked. (The reason they were sol old before I let them run together was that we were having hawks visit every day and they were small enough that they were easy pickin's so I waited until they got some weight on them.
Here is a photo so you can visualize how I used the plastic netting to divide in the run. After I'm done using it I just roll it up and put it away for the next time around.
In these photos, I was using the divider to give the girls a break from the rooter but it will give you an idea of the temporary divider.
Here are the 3 that were raised w/out a mamma on their side of the outdoor divider.
Used some eye hooks on the shed then some double-end hooks to hook it onto them.
Since the chain link fence is large enough for the baby chicks to go through for quite some time, I took lengths of the plastic netting and cut them length-wise in half, then zip tied them to the bottom of the whole run. I did this the year that the broody mamma raised 2 clutches. They get to run with the whole flock as mamma will fight for them.
At the gates I cut it long enough that it would overlap so they couldn't go through the crack.
And here is a photo of mama on hawk watch...out with her babies.
Couple photos of the whole thing just for perspective.
When we put our run on the coop, we did not have in mind the fact that we would have to work in additional birds in the future. Our run isn't very big, really, and our coop is one of those short/squatty kinds. There are six birds in it now and when we are done there will be 12. I talked it over with the DH and we don't think we can subdivide our coop or our run, really. They are just too small.
If my old chickens just see my new chickens in the yard, is that enough for them to get used to one another, or do you feel like they have to be kept in pretty close proximity with barriers up in order to facilitate that?
I was thinking I could possibly put up a temporary pen next to my run and let the new chickens do their "yard time" in that pen. That way the old girls could see them, but not touch them. It wouldn't keep a determined guinea out (if they were out to free range), but the dog might help me in that regard.
Last edited:
. Didn't you have your chickies in a barn this winter? How did it work out?
I'm going to have roos coming out my ears.
