- Feb 28, 2014
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Hello all! Hope this post finds you and your feathered friends well. I am a fairly new chicken mom (have had chickens for ~1 1/2 years). I started off with three chickens (1 new jersey giant, 1 gold laced wine dot, and 1 Rhode island red) I had them since they were little chicks (1 week old) and raised them up to pullets and now hens. Unfortunately my red passed away due to a genetic condition making her immune system weak and she succumbed to a double e-coli infection, very unfortunate. So to keep up with my chicken obsession I was given two new chickens (1 frizzle polish and one crested polish roo) when they were 6 weeks old. We had no idea that the crested was a roo until I started to notice the distinct difference in the growth of the crest and tail feathers, then soon followed the attempts at crowing. I housed them in a different area until they grew all their adult feathers in which was at about 8-9 weeks. Then transitioned them to an outdoor cage where they lived until about 10-12 weeks of age. I then let them roam the yard with the big girls (Jersey and Lacey) supervised at first then everything was going so well I didn't have to watch them anymore! They were roosting together at night and combing the yard together during the day. All of a sudden one day my giant got a "feather up her butt" and decided she was the big hen and attacked the little frizzle (I did not see it happen though with her behavior as of late I'm sure it was her). She had an injury so severe on the back of her neck I thought I would loose her, but I got her back to full health in about 3 weeks. During that time I had taken the two little ones inside (they are inseparable) and cared for her wounds. Once healed I got them back outside but this time made a fenced off area of the yard all their own. They have been separated now from the big girls for roughly 4 weeks. The giant has gone broody last Saturday and I have tried dunking her in cold water (on a warm day) to try to get her out of her cycle. Any time (even before she became broody) I tried to supervise a visit with the babies and the other two, the giant goes all big mama on them and chases them around. It's not immediate but she keeps doing it. My roo yesterday stood up to her and whacked her in the face, but to no avail, this morning my roo ended up on the big chicken side of the fence somehow and was being chased around the yard by jersey. I have been doing lots of research to see what I can do and am drawing up blanks. Any advise would be greatly appreciated!
