- Jun 16, 2012
- 1
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I love my chickens dearly. I've spent the last few hours crying over all my mounting mistakes. It seems I need to make mistakes before learning, and this needs to stop now. So I'm asking for advice on how to get back on track now. My story is as follows.
I purchased a home in December 2011. The previous owners raised chickens, but we never really considered it something that we would entertain in our lives. The day we picked up the keys to our home the previous owners asked us to keep the chickens as they had not yet been able to put together a suitable coop at their new home. We took to our new family quickly. I was surprised, but I got so much peace and enjoyment from them. I can sit for hours watching them and talking to them. I just love them and not to mention the eggs.
The chickens seemed to enjoy us as much as we enjoyed them. In the spring we decided to expand our family and purchased and raised seven assorted hens. Our coop is a duplex so we had the older chickens on one side and our new additions on the other. This gave us a total of 13 hens and one beautiful rooster. Sadly a raccoon decimated my new chicks. (Mistake number one)
We met my parents for dinner one Friday evening and got caught in traffic on our return home because of a terrible accident that closed the main road to our home. It took us over two hours to get home. By the time we had returned the raccoon had reached through the fencing and picked them off one by one. See my silly chicks needed to be forced inside at night. There were only two left.
Several weeks later with the thought new chicks would mend my broken heart, I ordered six new chicks. (Mistake number two) My two miracles from the first group continued to thrive in the coop in the meantime and grow to be my pride and joy. Winnie, a partridge cochin, and Tart, Salmon Faverolles are the loves of my life. They are both the sweetest most loving birds.
On Thursday night, the newest chicks being almost 6 weeks old, we introduced Winnie and Tart into the other side of the coop. Come Friday morning it was less than harmony. Tart seemed to hold her own but Winnie was being stressed to her outer limits. By Friday night she was missing most of the feathers on the top of her head. We closed the door to the duplex and decided to try the baby chicks in with Winnie and Tart. They are both so gentle it seemed like a good solution.
All seemed well at first a little chasing and chest puffing but nothing overly aggressive. By noon something had changed. Winnie started being very aggressive and trying to ponce and stomp the babies. She would not listen or stop. She was possessed. I removed Winnie and put her over on the other side. This was very bad. She was attacked immediately.
I pulled Winnie out, calmed her, and cleaned her scratches. She was still my loving baby. I put her back in the other side and she immediately went after the babies. She torn feathers out and stomped. I removed the babies and they are back in the basement much to the dismay of my significant other.
He says I should ask the neighbors to take her, but how could I ever get rid of her! He says she won’t go in either side and is the problem. I love her! What do I do now? Please help!
I purchased a home in December 2011. The previous owners raised chickens, but we never really considered it something that we would entertain in our lives. The day we picked up the keys to our home the previous owners asked us to keep the chickens as they had not yet been able to put together a suitable coop at their new home. We took to our new family quickly. I was surprised, but I got so much peace and enjoyment from them. I can sit for hours watching them and talking to them. I just love them and not to mention the eggs.
The chickens seemed to enjoy us as much as we enjoyed them. In the spring we decided to expand our family and purchased and raised seven assorted hens. Our coop is a duplex so we had the older chickens on one side and our new additions on the other. This gave us a total of 13 hens and one beautiful rooster. Sadly a raccoon decimated my new chicks. (Mistake number one)
We met my parents for dinner one Friday evening and got caught in traffic on our return home because of a terrible accident that closed the main road to our home. It took us over two hours to get home. By the time we had returned the raccoon had reached through the fencing and picked them off one by one. See my silly chicks needed to be forced inside at night. There were only two left.
Several weeks later with the thought new chicks would mend my broken heart, I ordered six new chicks. (Mistake number two) My two miracles from the first group continued to thrive in the coop in the meantime and grow to be my pride and joy. Winnie, a partridge cochin, and Tart, Salmon Faverolles are the loves of my life. They are both the sweetest most loving birds.
On Thursday night, the newest chicks being almost 6 weeks old, we introduced Winnie and Tart into the other side of the coop. Come Friday morning it was less than harmony. Tart seemed to hold her own but Winnie was being stressed to her outer limits. By Friday night she was missing most of the feathers on the top of her head. We closed the door to the duplex and decided to try the baby chicks in with Winnie and Tart. They are both so gentle it seemed like a good solution.
All seemed well at first a little chasing and chest puffing but nothing overly aggressive. By noon something had changed. Winnie started being very aggressive and trying to ponce and stomp the babies. She would not listen or stop. She was possessed. I removed Winnie and put her over on the other side. This was very bad. She was attacked immediately.
I pulled Winnie out, calmed her, and cleaned her scratches. She was still my loving baby. I put her back in the other side and she immediately went after the babies. She torn feathers out and stomped. I removed the babies and they are back in the basement much to the dismay of my significant other.
He says I should ask the neighbors to take her, but how could I ever get rid of her! He says she won’t go in either side and is the problem. I love her! What do I do now? Please help!
from Ohio. So glad to have you aboard. I think you are going to have to keep the babies separated until they are all about the same size. Good luck 
