Newbie should have listened

[aliciaford]

I am a newbie, and I will be the first to say that I should have listened to the advise I got from chicken owners and all the books I read on chickens. I just got so excited over all the different breeds and how each breed has different traits, ect. Now I have behavior problems and DH is not too enthused about building me another coop for my "ornamental" birds.

At about 8 weeks my 2 polish and 4 frizzles, and my "free rare chick"(breed unknown he has 5 toes???) started getting picked on, ie: feather pulling and pecking to draw blood, ect. So, I started a chicken hospital and nursed them back to health. Now, I have tried everything I have read about intergrating them back into the flock and each time they are attacked by my RIR and BRock. Ruthless little birds...

Now that they are getting bigger the hospital is getting too small and they are starting to pick on each other. So sad, I dont think I have another choice but to build a second coop... Ideas?

 

[arlee453]

2nd coop....and then you'll need to get them some friends, right??

 

[robinaggie]

My2 BRs are nice until they meet another chick. Then they turn into beady-eyed monsters that peck really hard. I can't integrate either, so I'm giving all the other chicks away as they hatch. Not a fun solution. Good luck to you.

 

[blueskylen]

Hmmmm - i think that i'll change my mind about getting a BR roo, as they sound a bit rough.

 

[smom1976]

mine are 7 weeks and I have some polish and then others too.. I noticed that my polish were getting pecked.. But then I started using my back door thinking..

They were only getting pecked when their heads were wet. The first time I noticed it was when one of the polish had its entire head in a watermelon the second time is when we had a rain.

I cut back the feathers of the one that got pecked the worst and they seem to be doing ok..

I am a week behind you tho..

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Uh.....I started with 7 grown Cochins. I am now up to 4 coops and still building.
It's been only 6 months.
Can you say, Hello, Lowes?
Count how many I was up to last week in my sig below.