introducing young adults to older chickens

[ferocious]

Hi - I have 4 chickens - I just got two of them yesterday and was told to put them into the ccop at night after the others were asleep so they would be more easily integrated in the morning.

So this morning there was a lot of squeaking and crying for a long time, the 2 newbies went into the coop and have not come out all day. I began to worry and put some food and water in the coop - it is very hot here today (northern CA) and I think they must have been dehydrated. At first I hoped they would come out when they got thirsty or hungry.

We just moved and we just moved the coop to our new place day before yesterday - I think the ladder is a bit steeper than it was in the old spot because the cement posts it had been sitting on had sunk some. They will probably settle again here - esp. if it rains, but so far it's steeper.

The 2 older chickens go in and out easily. I was watching today and one of the newbies - Queen Anne or Queenie for short seemed to be trying to get down but seemed kind of trepidatious about it and off balance and she backed off. So I don't know if they are staying in there for fear of the other chickens or because they have not learned how to deal with the ladder yet.

Also, the other newbie - the one I call Floppy CombOver or just Floppy for short because of her floppy comb has a broken beak. When we purchased them I noticed that a bunch of the ones they were caged with had broken beaks as well. Is this a bad sign?

I had asked the woman at the feed store where I got them to give me one without a broken beak, but somehow I wound up with one that has it. Is this a calcium problem? I always make sure they have oyster shell available but this one is so new and hasn't been eating at my hose for long.

They are red hens with yellow feet and all of those at the feed store were the same kind. Another feed store has chickens of that breed and a lot of those have broken beaks also. All the chickens at both places were raised by the same person.

Anyway, can anyone give me insight into why these 2 newbies are not coming out and what I can do to lure them out?

Thanks so much for your help.

The ferciousDesigner

 

[sumi]

It bothers me that your local feed store sells hens with "broken" beaks. I've been raising chickens for a few years now and I've had quite a few of them. In all this time I've had one broken beak issue, with a young chick. Something is definitely wrong at their supplier's place and they really shouldn't be selling chickens like that. JMO

To answer your question, the newbies will need some time to settle in and feel comfortable enough to go out and hang out with the rest of your flock. In the meantime encourage them, but make sure they have food and water available during the day at least. If the others are not around you can try to tempt them out by throwing a little scratch around the coop, or other treats.

As for the broken beak, it may or may not recover. It depends on whether or not there was nerve damage. Hopefully it will.

 

[azygous]

Can you describe these "broken" beaks a little better? We would like to be able to judge whether these hens from the supplier de-beaked them or if they have a serious diet issue, resulting in so many broken beaks, indicating criminal neglect.

How much of the beak is missing on your hen? Or is it just cracked? Is part of the beak detached, the rest hanging? Were all the hens with broken beaks you saw at the feed store uniformly "broken"? Or, as would be the case with broken beaks, some longer or shorter?

If just the tip of the beak is missing, the supplier may have trimmed the beak on your hen because it was observed she was picking feathers from the others. If that's the case, the beak will grow back in just a few weeks time. This practice is acceptable since the chicken suffers no permanent disfigurement.

If she appears to be missing most of her beak, as compared to the ones with intact beaks, she has probably been de-beaked and her beak will probably never grow back entirely. If all the hens you saw at the feed store with broken beaks had a uniformly amount missing, approximately half, they were probably de-beaked by the supplier to control disruptive behavior. Of course that practice, even though legal, is disgusting and very, very tragic. I would pressure the feed store to drop this supplier due to moral reasons.

If the beaks were indeed broken due to dietary deficiencies, that should be reported to whatever agency handles complaints about treatment of animals for commercial sale in your state. And you should pressure your feed store to drop this supplier due to criminal neglect.