Moving some girls? Who?

[User395221]

I have 2 chicken houses and runs because when I got my little fancy bantams my existing big girl isa brows were mean to them. I couldn't be bothered trying to get them to like each other and didn't want the little ones to be picked on by the big meanies.
Anyway, time has passed and I've lost 2 of my isa browns. I'd like to reorganise who is in which group but I'm not sure how to pick out who should move.
The little girls stay in their run because I had a young d'uccle get killed when I went out one day and forgot to put them back in the run. The big girls are allowed out to wander the backyard.
Today, the door of the little girls' house wasn't shut properly and I found several free roaming (and others stayed inside, they were too scared or whatever to come out).
Previously, I thought I'd move a couple of girls, but they got upset and I abandoned the idea.
One of my big girls went into the little girls' run the other day. She ignored everyone and wasn't mean or aggressive until Lucy (black copper maran) challenged her. She wasn't at all "in your face" mean like the isa browns were so I'm thinking the big girls might accept some newcomers to stay in their house.
Last time, I thought I'd move the bigger girls Lucy and an australorp cross, based on size, but I'm a bit worried that Lucy might fight for dominance. I'm not too sure who is in charge, I think the girls who've died ruled the roost and because the free range, they don't really have to fight about anything, they just go where they want.
Maybe I should let everybody out to free range together and see if anyone gets bossy/chums up?
Any tips? Bad idea? Good idea?

 

[Pork Pie]

It's how I integrate pullets to the main flock. Once they are 4 months, I open their run so they can range with the main flock. Eventually they decide to roost with the main flock, but I leave the timing up to them.

 

[luckyplucky]

The short version of my experience is yes, our bantams and our standards free range in the yard together and share a coop at night, and they have no issues. After integrating multiple sets of growing chicks and pullets in with adults, I did find the "playpen" method to be helpful, essentially, when you first introduce in a common space give them anywhere from a day or two to a couple weeks (depending on how they do) with chicken wire or hardware cloth separating them so they can see and interact but still be safe while you're observing.

The longer version you don't have to read but I'm sharing anyway because you might find it amusing how much time and energy we spent playing "musical coops" only to have the result stated above. Our chicken yard is large enough for our chickens but not so large that we can erect a bunch of different structures. On the right side of the chicken yard is a semi-enclosed run that contains the main/large coop, but they all have access to the rest of the yard. When we added bantams last year I had this romantic vision of Silkies and Frizzle Sizzles frolicking in our play yard and garden and sitting in our kids laps following us around like dogs, because that is what I had read about. So, my husband built an entirely new, smaller and fully enclosed run (we have hawks) for the bantams on the left side of the chicken yard leading to our play yard and garden, connected to a gate that we put up because the standards were decimating the garden of course. There is a (closed) human door on the right side of the bantam run that lets out into the chicken yard, and I insisted he put a pophole door on the left side of the bantam run leading into our play yard so that when opened and with supervision the bantams could come into our yard but not the standards. At the time we had young standard chicks in an indoor brooder also. While this was being built we had Silkies and Sizzles (and a week or so later, 3 bantam cochins) in brooders separate from the standards brooder. They were around 8 weeks when we got them, and ended up being too wacky to be lap chickens (should have known when they were a PITA to catch in the breeder's yard). The bantams and standards could safely interact through the hardware cloth. Cochins still in brooder for a while after this, as they were super tiny (one chick died, left with what ended up being a boy-girl pair). We had to cull the Silkies and 2 sizzles due to illness and were left with a "life partner" pair of sizzles in the bantam run. Eventually we started letting them out into the chicken yard during the day, and they would return to the coop at night. At some point the second pair of life partners, the Cochins, joined them. Sometime during this period I had erected temporary runs for the standard chicks-turned-pullets, adjacent to main coop and run, to transition them. After a couple months of this and once the pullets were integrated into the big coop, the Sizzle pair started going into the big coop with the big girls at night, all on their own. So the Cochin pair had the bantam run and coop to themselves, and we called it the "Honeymoon Suite." The Cochins were very friendly and did end up going into our yard at times. Everybody mingled during the day and was happy. A couple months ago a predator killed our Cochin girl Sandy, so Rizzo was left all alone in his coop. We transitioned him to the big coop and he's doing just fine. But I have to laugh when I think about all that effort, because the bantam run is now a ghost town and the only spats that happen in the chicken yard are an occasional one between the two roos, or when one of them wants to mate with the big girls and they're like "No thank you!" We are really hoping to get some more Silkies later in the year, but since we are getting chicks next week and want to try outdoor brooding for the first time, the Silkies will have to wait!
Sorry for the long post!

 

[User395221]

hahahaha, it'd be sad if it wasn't so familiar. All our hopes and dreams shattered by birds who do whatever they want.

I'd forgotten how useless chooks are at seeing mesh and at figuring out how to find the door.... I just spent all of this time trying to wrangle the little girls back into their house. My littlest girl (the last one out, everyone else had been lured inside with some veggies) was around the back of the run trying to get through the mesh. I had to go up there, after slashing through a lan of spiders and try to shoo her back around. She was just sitting there, so I picked her up, walked back around to put her inside.
A group of girls had come back outside.....
The big girls have learnt to wander and how to get back inside without walking all around trying to get in through the mesh, they can now find their door. I'd forgotten all of the walking back and forth while looking through the mesh. sigh.
I could let everybody out who wants to go out, but I'll worry about the little ones. For some reason, my dog wants to chase the little ones. She's a good dog, if I tell her not to, she won't, but I have to be there tell her so. Also, Flossie came out. She's little, but she's also the boss of her group. Could she fight with the big girls about leadership, because physically I don't think she could win. I also worry the black crows might get them (do crows eat chickens?)
Worry, worry, worry. Thanks for letting me vent. Believe it or not, it helps.

 

[luckyplucky]

Someone on another thread told me that crows help keep hawks away. I really hope it's true, because we do have hawks all the time here (one did swoop down once and try to take a hen), as well as lots of crows who even when in our yard don't seem at all interested in our chickens. But until they reach a certain size I always put a protective cover on whatever setup they're in if they're outside, if I am not standing right there with them. Between the predator birds and neighborhood cats (one of which has killed a chicken, during the couple months between our old cats dying and us getting new ones) I do as much as I can though it doesn't feel like enough! Our own cats don't bother the chickens and keep neighborhood cats away (I still make sure they are protected during interactions when they are chicks) and we used to have a dog that had never hurt a chicken, but loved to chase them. He never showed signs of instinct or aggression though, he just really seemed to think it was fun; still so as not to stress them or push the envelope we tried not to let him out if we weren't around.

 

[luckyplucky]

Hahaha and when the door between their worlds metaphorically and literally opened, the big girls loved going in the small enclosed bantam run. To this day they would be laying eggs in that little coop if they had access!!

 

[User395221]

Someone on another thread told me that crows help keep hawks away.

We don't have hawks around here, luckily.
I need to relax and stop with the "what ifs". If it's not too hot tomorrow, i'll give everybody some supervised outdoor time and see what happens. I'll put the barrier back up that my dog knocked down so everyone can't get up behind the run. That should stop the "benny hill" chase sequences.
Maybe I'll put the young girls in with the big girls, they might adapt the best...