chirpysmallholder
Hatching
- Jul 8, 2018
- 2
- 1
- 6
Hello!
So I'm back to keeping chickens after a few years break after a horrible lice outbreak followed by some nasty fox visits etc.
But I've missed my birds so earlier this year I dug out my incubator and decided to go for it and order some eggs online.
After a bit of drama with shipping (eg. they went to the wrong house!) I eventually got my 12 previous bantie eggs into the Bator.
They were supposed to be 6golden bearded silkies and 6 mottled pekins.
Half turned out to be infertile and four out of the 12 hatched. They've been growing up nicely and are no approx. 3 months old, two definitely cockerels, one I wasn't sure about and one that I'm praying stays a hen! All living happily together in an ark on the lawn. However not what they said they were! Two look like silkie crosses - one white (one I wasn't sure about) and one lemon/gold ish (praying a hen) and two look like mottled pekins (both clearly cockerels).
Yesterday I was out at our local county show and couldn't resist visiting a poultry stand (yes I know, bad idea) and came home with a gorgeous POL chamois polish, i've been tricked into being sold young cockerels as hens before so I picked the one with the egg in her cage as I figured thats a clear sign!
Brought her home yesterday and put her into isolation for the rest of the day, she's from a reputable local poultry breeder and looks very healthy and happy so after a good check over I decided to pop her in with the banties while they were all asleep (this is what I was taught was a good way to introduce them when I was younger but not sure how people usually go about it now!) all fine and settled down to sleep. Got up early to let them out as didn't want them in the confined space too long and its light so early nowadays. Let them out and the usual few pecks here and there but nothing vicious and seemed okay, watched them for about half an hour and then left them to it and went back to get some kip! Came back up around an hour later to find the new hen hiding with her head down in the corner and the silkie x (one I wasn't sure about!) pulling her feathers out!! Decided to do a close up cockerel check as I'd need to separate them at some point anyway because I can't keep three, having looked at them closely I've decided that 3 of the ones I've hatched are cockerels, put them all back in and waited and watched again but the silkie x was still bullying the new hen so I decided to give the two hens a break and put the 3 cockerels out to run round the garden for the rest of the day and left the two hens together in the ark. They seemed to get on fine and I went out for a couple of hours to run some errands, came back to check on them this evening and the new hen was chasing the little hen I hatched round and pulling her feathers out!!
So my question is,
A) what to do now?! I've put two of the cockerels up for sale, want to keep the friendliest mottled pekin one (although I guess he could only be friendly as he's being submissive and still young) but obviously not sure what to do with them meanwhile, put them all back in or keep them separate?
B) will the new hen continue to bully the home hatched hen or will they sort themselves out with time? Am I perhaps too much of a chicken lover and step in too quickly when they're actually in reality sorting out their pecking order?
C) How badly can they bully each other? Say I just leave the cockerel to it, will he give her a break and give up or will he hurt her and continually pull her feathers out?
and finally if you've managed to read this far I salute and congratulate you!
Thanks in advance for your help chicken peeps x
Have added some pics of my random little bunch
So I'm back to keeping chickens after a few years break after a horrible lice outbreak followed by some nasty fox visits etc.
But I've missed my birds so earlier this year I dug out my incubator and decided to go for it and order some eggs online.
After a bit of drama with shipping (eg. they went to the wrong house!) I eventually got my 12 previous bantie eggs into the Bator.
They were supposed to be 6golden bearded silkies and 6 mottled pekins.
Half turned out to be infertile and four out of the 12 hatched. They've been growing up nicely and are no approx. 3 months old, two definitely cockerels, one I wasn't sure about and one that I'm praying stays a hen! All living happily together in an ark on the lawn. However not what they said they were! Two look like silkie crosses - one white (one I wasn't sure about) and one lemon/gold ish (praying a hen) and two look like mottled pekins (both clearly cockerels).
Yesterday I was out at our local county show and couldn't resist visiting a poultry stand (yes I know, bad idea) and came home with a gorgeous POL chamois polish, i've been tricked into being sold young cockerels as hens before so I picked the one with the egg in her cage as I figured thats a clear sign!
Brought her home yesterday and put her into isolation for the rest of the day, she's from a reputable local poultry breeder and looks very healthy and happy so after a good check over I decided to pop her in with the banties while they were all asleep (this is what I was taught was a good way to introduce them when I was younger but not sure how people usually go about it now!) all fine and settled down to sleep. Got up early to let them out as didn't want them in the confined space too long and its light so early nowadays. Let them out and the usual few pecks here and there but nothing vicious and seemed okay, watched them for about half an hour and then left them to it and went back to get some kip! Came back up around an hour later to find the new hen hiding with her head down in the corner and the silkie x (one I wasn't sure about!) pulling her feathers out!! Decided to do a close up cockerel check as I'd need to separate them at some point anyway because I can't keep three, having looked at them closely I've decided that 3 of the ones I've hatched are cockerels, put them all back in and waited and watched again but the silkie x was still bullying the new hen so I decided to give the two hens a break and put the 3 cockerels out to run round the garden for the rest of the day and left the two hens together in the ark. They seemed to get on fine and I went out for a couple of hours to run some errands, came back to check on them this evening and the new hen was chasing the little hen I hatched round and pulling her feathers out!!
So my question is,
A) what to do now?! I've put two of the cockerels up for sale, want to keep the friendliest mottled pekin one (although I guess he could only be friendly as he's being submissive and still young) but obviously not sure what to do with them meanwhile, put them all back in or keep them separate?
B) will the new hen continue to bully the home hatched hen or will they sort themselves out with time? Am I perhaps too much of a chicken lover and step in too quickly when they're actually in reality sorting out their pecking order?
C) How badly can they bully each other? Say I just leave the cockerel to it, will he give her a break and give up or will he hurt her and continually pull her feathers out?
and finally if you've managed to read this far I salute and congratulate you!
Thanks in advance for your help chicken peeps x
Have added some pics of my random little bunch
We've got around ten acres so space not an issue but definitely don't want three roo's around, I was thinking of keeping one of the black laced ones as he was from a different egg batch so not related to the silkie x hen, and get him a nice black laced hen to breed from although perhaps he's only being nice as he's not the 'dominant' rooster at the moment! I think perhaps I'll take the two roosters out and put them in another pen to be sold and leave the little one in with the two hens and see how they get on.
