I have four year-old chickens, and seven new pullets, about 7 weeks old. My new coop isn't ready so I've been letting the chicks spend the day outside with the other girls, in a separate enclosure but they are right next to each other and can see each other through the chain link - we've been doing that for maybe 10 days. The littles go back in the porch at night. When I'm in there with them I let them mix around to see how they do. Most of the big girls tolerate the littles - they might menace them a bit, but basically ignore them. One, however, "Olive, the Olive Egger" is vicious -she'll chase them all around the yard and bite, hard. (She also bullies one of the older ones, Penguin the Blind Chicken, who was blinded in a hawk attack. Penguin's not too nice to the littles either but since she can't see them she's pretty harmless most of the time - they can get away from her.)
Is there anything I can do to get Olive to be nicer / less aggressive? yesterday I locked her up in the coop for an hour and let everyone else hang out together, which they did with no incident. But I can't keep her in there forever!
Is there anything I can do to get Olive to be nicer / less aggressive? yesterday I locked her up in the coop for an hour and let everyone else hang out together, which they did with no incident. But I can't keep her in there forever!