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WindingRoad

Crowing
Nov 21, 2018
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Maine
Hi my name is Bobbi. I have two chickens. They are about 2 years old, although they didn't molt this fall. Still laying eggs, sometimes two a day. Sometimes only one now. I live in Maine and it has been very cold. One is a Buff Orpington and the other is a New Hampshire Red. Not dark enough to be a RIRed. Funny thing is the Buff lays the darker egg and the other lays the lighter. Buff is a larger bird, not just feathers because I handle both and she lays the smaller egg. Eggs are nice 61-64 grams each. Again smaller NH Red lays bigger egg. They didn't seem to have a pecking order because I believe they were raised together.

Now I've got 2 16 week old Silver Laced Wyandottes. What beautiful birds. They are not laying as of yet and they didn't molt this fall either.

Now my NH Red doesn't like them at all. Clucking loudly and almost "growling" at them. And she will peck them too. The Buff might go after them now and again but not at all like the NH Red. Tonight when I cooped them up at dusk they were all up in the coop. Two Wyandottes on one side and my other two on the other side of the coop. Usually one group with roost at the top of the ladder not letting they other group in to get warm. I don't know what happened tonight.

Biggest problem though is I don't think the Wyandottes are eating much. I feed the two groups separately but the Wyandottes hardly eat anything. Hope they will start eating soon.

I have lot of questions for another time.
 
starri33 said:
Welcome to the group, afraid I can not offer any help as I am fairly new to this, but I am sure that some of the others can help.
Click to expand...
I think my Wyans are just scared and overwhelmed. Hopefully, they'll get hungry soon. Although I did boil up "a mess" of gizzards and heart for them all. I let them cool of course and chopped them about the size of pellets. The 2 Wyans did eat a fair amount of that. My hens turned up their noses. Wyans won't eat mealworms. But my other 2 devour them.

My Buff and NH Red do free range, not now the ground is frozen. LOL. But they won't eat any dinner scraps. Won't eat watermelon , cucumber, peach peels. Nothing like that. They don't like anything mushy. They hate mush on their beaks. They do love Grape Nuts with ground up egg shells. They won't eat raisins nor cooked oatmeal. It's either pellets, scratch, oyster shell and meal worms. Or forage for worms or bugs. Picky birds.
 
Hi and welcome to BYC. Aggression, can be caused by a number of factors. Firstly, I'd use multiple feeding stations and place objects within the run (assuming they do not free range) that acts to block lines of sight.

Read through these links and see if you can improve things.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-much-room-do-chickens-need

http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/winter-chicken-keeping

http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/winter-coop-temperatures

Topic of the week - Winter chicken keeping

Best wishes
Pork Pie
 
Pork Pie said:
Hi and welcome to BYC. Aggression, can be caused by a number of factors. Firstly, I'd use multiple feeding stations and place objects within the run (assuming they do not free range) that acts to block lines of sight.

Read through these links and see if you can improve things.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-much-room-do-chickens-need

http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/winter-chicken-keeping

http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/winter-coop-temperatures

Topic of the week - Winter chicken keeping

Best wishes
Pork Pie
Click to expand...
Thanks for the links. I think the fact that they were all up in coop tonight was a good sign.. Usually whoever gets in the coop first owns it and won't let the other group up. But I changed things up earlier and put my birds up in the coop with the door to the run open so they could go down if they wanted to. The Wyans were staying up in the coop and hogging the ladder so the others could't get up there.

I try to keep that NHRed in line if I see her really bullying the Wyans. I'm retired so I spend a lot of time with my birds. I go out about every 2 hours and just check on them. Let them outside if it's not too cold. I did put down straw around the coop so they don't have to walk on the cold snow but they drift away and end up on the snow. When they start standing on one leg and then the other I shoo them back in.
 

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