New to backyard chickens

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jandbschicks

jandbschicks

Hatching
7 Years
May 5, 2012
1
0
7
Have been raising chickens for about a year now and have 2 leghorns and 1 rhode island red that are laying. Acquired two brahma chicks at easter and wanted to introduce them to the girls. Thursday they were fine, Friday went to the coop and one of the brahmas had been attacked and all the back feathers and blood feathers were gone. She was a bloody mess. Of course, in panic I removed her and am isolating her in a cage away from the others. Why would the other chickens attack the brahma. She is eating and drinking well. Pooping good too. Hopefully she will be ok. Is there anything I can put on the wounds? Today (Saturday) the girls started to attack the other brahma so both are now in isolation. Are the breeds not compatable?
 
I don't know how you are set up but I had a similar problem introducing my BO and I thought they would never accept her. She was so sweet and would follow us around the yard. We made her a temporary pen next to the run of the other three so they could see her and not get to her. They would all "free range" the yard during the day and they would chase her. Eventually they got used to seeing her and slowly allowed her to get closer to them. Eventually she was allowed into the coop at night but had to be out by morning or there was hell to pay! We had to make sure we were up before them to open the door so the BO could flee. We had to treat her once for bites on her earlobes when we didn't get out there early enough. Now it has been about 6 weeks and they seem to have accepted her although she still keeps a little distance. We have 1 BR that still likes to chase her just for the fun of it. She is still at the bottom of the pecking order. It will take time for the two new Brahmas to be accepted and they will probably always be at the bottom of the pecking order. Good Luck!
 
Hi and :welcome from Ohio. So glad you joined. If you have a local TSC, they carry a EMT wound gel that is made for poultry and other animals. It is really thick but works well. Good luck. :thumbsup
 
Our hens (7 mths) have a separate coop and run then our pullets(3mths) but they share a fence so they can see each other and get use to each other, after they have been like that for about a week we cut a couple of "doors" in the shared fence, big enough for the pullets but to small for the hens that way the pullets can go check out the other run and big girls and if they have a problem with the big girls they just run back to their side, so far so good you might want to give it a try. Today we found one of our pullets out sitting next to one of the ladies so it seems to be working, we probably will wait till the pullets are bigger to take down the adjoining fence so the picking order won't be so bad *fingers crossed*
you should put your separated chicks next to the hens so they can get use together but not close enough to be able to peck them in their cage
good luck
 
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