Let the little ones into the run?

[thewhyblockl]

Hey. I'm glad it went so well! I like the wire they could duck in and out through while growing. Cool way for them to feel a bit secure.

When mine hatched I kept them in the bathroom in a big cardboad box chick fun-house (4 boxes connected together by cardboard tunnels. They didn't meet another chicken until they were 3 weeks old, and by then I already had the older chicks in the run. I also got the older chicks already hatched from parents as large as beagles (my husband picked them up and this was his description of their size). They are only 8 weeks now, and as big as a good sized bantam hen! My little chicks were a pack of fertile eggs when I got them. They come from a different place all together. They seem like they will be smaller than the older chicks when they are grown. I'm worried that if the older chicks don't get over it now, the little ones will get a permanent spot on the bottom of the pecking order...which could be especially bad for Handsome, my curl-toed chick. The run for their brooder house is already sitting inside the chicken run. You think it might help if I pull the whole thing so it sits smack in the middle of the run? Now it runs along one side of the run so that the older chicks can move all along one side of it but can't go behind or around it. I can do this tomorrow, weather permitting. And put them out for very supervised run-time under the protection of the big scary mother hen holding a bamboo pole. Sigh. I feel like I'm worrying about these fuzzballs too much.

I'm glad you are safe, and I hope that your relatives will be ok too.
I live over on the West Coast of New Zealand now, but I lived for many years in Europe after I moved away from the US where I was born. I've finally settled down out here with my wonderful half-kiwi husband.
I'm really bad with geography. I had to google-map you to see how far from the flooding you were. I always forget how huge Australia is!

 

[HelenaJean]

haha, that wire was by no means intentional; but ended up working well.
You wouldn't be any kind of mumma if you didn't worry over your babies

i'm really stressed about some silkies in the pen next door that sneeze and one (tiny, skinny black baby with vision issues) who is a little more worse for wear but still pretty happy; they're perfectly healthy looking otherwise, but i've working myself up to tears thinking that i might have to put my little mates down. I need a reality check sometimes; besides, one of them is sitting on from fertile mail-order eggs! so maybe some new babies!

What i'm thinking is that if the big girls can see the little ones around them all the time, appearing to be unprotected, they might get used to it and not feel the need to peck them so much to show them whose boss when they're out and about. I guess what i think (which doesn't amount to a great deal, i'm new to babies too) is that it depends on what your baby's run looks like, if it's easy to see through (wire) then i recon putting it in the middle might help. But if they can't see the babies, they will still be a 'new' intruder rather than just a familiar face.

A bit of pecking is normal; and being at the bottom of a pecking order is fine, being at the bottom doesn't mean malicious bullying, it just means they get last choice of food, nesting, mates etc. It's when all the big kids gang up and have a all-in peck-fest that things aren't so great, if blood is drawn they're in a bit of trouble. Usually the pecking order sorts itself out within a week, the only worry is that these babies are so small that normal pecks could hurt them more than normal sized birds.

you're doing fine, raising babies of any description isn't easy. I feel a little strange offering advice like this when i'm so new too, it's a learning curb! It sounds like they're doing great, and if the only safe way the big girls can get used to having them around is if you're big and scarey with a pole, then so be it. It takes chickens a while to settle down when their pecking order is threatened. Once they chill out a bit and get used to it, they'll stop attacking like that. Maybe the odd passing peck or chasing away from some food they want just to enforce that they're boss, but they'll get over it.

What's your name by the way?

here's a pic of my babies! (two are isa brown cross barred rock, while the other ones daddy is a buff orphington bantam)

 

[thewhyblockl]

hey Helena,
Whew! Long week, and I haven't even checked my email for over 5 days! I love the pics you posted. I'll fiddle around and see if I can post one of my little rascals. I'm still putting them out for supervised play for an hour a day, and the older chicks are still being very rough...though possibly less so than a week ago. I think you're right that the size difference means that 'normal' pecking has a bigger impact on the babies. The big ones really go out of their way to attack the little ones though! Still.
Good luck with your sneezing silkies and your skinny chick! I also get really upset at the thought of having to put any of them down.
It's raining buckets out there and I have to go out there and coop my poor wet cold pals!
'til then, Colby
ps, I see I have no photo posting option on this thread. : )

 

[HelenaJean]

we're having some minor flooding here and my power was off for a while so i've been slack with my email.
big news; mum's abandoned her babies, so they're on their lonesome now. The others still leave them alone.
I actually saw one of them up on the top perch with the other hens, it shuffles over, the hen looked down, 'what?!' and pecks it (gently), it makes a squaky toy noise but doesn't move. She's put off by this so she shuffles over; then the baby shuffles over. This goes on until the baby has half a perch to itself with all the girls looking annoyed and squahed together, then the hen bails out so the baby's bored and hops down too. It was SO funny to watch!
The little rat bag appeared to be at the top of the pecking order!! or just too annoying for the old girl

keep me posted about your babies, those big kids are such meanies!

 

[thewhyblockl]

I hope the flooding is under control, and that the cyclone left you all intact. Lots of rough weather over there! It's in the news every day.
Chickens are too funny. I really watched that coop story like it happened in front of me. They have so much character and such funny idiosyncrasies...2 of my teenagers won't touch veggies unless they steal them in food tag. They create group decoys when I'm trying to feed the little ones so when I turn to shew them the others ambush me from a blind side. Every time two of my teens cock fight, 2 of the little ones copy them. They are goofy...there's no other way to describe them. They are also very dignified and elegant, but mostly goofy.
FINALLY the teens decided they had had enough roughing up the babies, and now I can leave them out all day without too much worry. I check on them a lot, and I still play alpha-hen when the big ones steal all the babies food away. Most of the pecking happening now is 'harmless' harassment not meant to maim. I am still putting them in different coops at night for another few nights just to be on the safe side, but it really looks good.

 

[thewhyblockl]

Here are two bullies trapping three of the babies in the corner behind the brooder and shaking them down for lunch money. The brutes.