Integration not going well

[Hholly]

Hi all, I'm needing advice here and appreciate any experienced people's replies.

My new flock: 2 bantam (Nankin cross)hens and their 8, 5-week-old chicks; 5, 6-8 week old silkie chicks purchased a week after the first crew came home.
The coop is a 10x10 dog kennel inside the barn and a 10x10 outdoor run attached, that will soon be expanded to 10x30.

Since bringing home the silkies, more than 2 weeks ago, they have been housed inside the coop in their own mini coop. They can see and be seen by the others. I had planned to make a panic room out of their little pen. But one of the Nankin hens(the lower on the pecking order) is acting like a Velociraptor toward the silkies. If she sees them close to the side of their pen, she attacks and rips out feathers. If I have their door open while I clean and care for the silkies, the hen looks for any opportunity to go after the silkies. The silkies are very shy anyway and I want to let them explore outside their pen. But there seems to be no progress with this one hen. I hoped that the protective instincts of the hens would be starting to mellow as their chicks got more independent. I'm also afraid she will turn all the young chicks against the silkies too.

I would not be opposed to rehoming this hen. Or even making soup out of her. But if something could be done less drastic, I would like to try. I love the silkies and they're staying.

Any thoughts?

 

[Ridgerunner]

That’s a bit hard. Probably the best thing is patience. Wait until those hens wean their chicks and try to integrate then. Also get the run expansion done. The more room you can give them the better. Have different feeding and watering stations when you try.

A broody hen is running on hormones. You want one to be protective of her chicks but not necessarily one that goes out of her way to be vicious. Part of it may be a lack of room. Part of it may be that the Silkies look different. If she behaves this way after she weans her chicks and the hormones are back to normal, I’d get rid of her. If she behaves OK, I’d probably keep her.

 

[Hholly]

Thanks for the reply. Any idea how long those hormones will last? I thought at 4 weeks they would start to subside. But the hens seem as protective as ever at 5 weeks.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I had a hen wean her chicks at 3 weeks. I’ve had hens not wean their chicks until after nine weeks. Some people I trust on this forum say theirs have gone much longer. It just depends on the individual hen.

 

[Hholly]

Ah, ok. Thanks.