Iluveggers
Enabler
I have a group of hens aged 1-4 years old. In an parallel run with smaller coop I was housing eight 10 week old chicks, one cockerel and 7 pullets. We got home stuck out and got home shortly after dusk one night, and found 6 of the young pullets had been killed. Just one pullet and the cockerel survived. I feel absolutely horrible that I didn’t try to find a neighbor to lock them in for us. Usually our dogs are out running the yard and that evening they were inside. Talk about guilt.
Since they had been in adjacent runs for 6 weeks, I put the two surviving littles in with the hens so they wouldn’t be alone. Although they are clearly at the bottom, they are not getting constantly chased and have learned to get out of the way of the hens when they want something. No attacks from the hens, but they do keep the littles on their toes.
I guess I am looking for advice. It is just the two of them…I do have a handful of replacement chicks coming later this month, but there will be quite the age difference. If I try to find other 10 week old pullets, they will still be unknown to the littles. I am also worried about our unexpected cockerel, and would like to try to keep him so my pullet isn’t alone, so any advice on how to handle him and this whole situation would be greatly welcomed. She has done a decent job of integrating and roosts in an empty corner on the bottom roost bar (I’ve been putting the cockerel next to her). He is much more skittish and is afraid of his own shadow. He waits in the coop in the morning until I go in, and only comes out when I leave after poop scooping. If I am in the coop or run he stays right next to me but still seems very nervous. I’m sure it’s partly on what happened to the rest of them.
Thank you so much.
Since they had been in adjacent runs for 6 weeks, I put the two surviving littles in with the hens so they wouldn’t be alone. Although they are clearly at the bottom, they are not getting constantly chased and have learned to get out of the way of the hens when they want something. No attacks from the hens, but they do keep the littles on their toes.
I guess I am looking for advice. It is just the two of them…I do have a handful of replacement chicks coming later this month, but there will be quite the age difference. If I try to find other 10 week old pullets, they will still be unknown to the littles. I am also worried about our unexpected cockerel, and would like to try to keep him so my pullet isn’t alone, so any advice on how to handle him and this whole situation would be greatly welcomed. She has done a decent job of integrating and roosts in an empty corner on the bottom roost bar (I’ve been putting the cockerel next to her). He is much more skittish and is afraid of his own shadow. He waits in the coop in the morning until I go in, and only comes out when I leave after poop scooping. If I am in the coop or run he stays right next to me but still seems very nervous. I’m sure it’s partly on what happened to the rest of them.
Thank you so much.
