5lilchix
Hatching
- Jan 5, 2016
- 3
- 0
- 7
So I purchased a coop that came with 5 laying hens already in it. 2 RIR's, 2 BR, and an EE. The person who I got it from also had 2 approximately 5-6 week old chicks and 5- 2.5 week old chicks. We brought them all home and all the babies came inside into a brooder initially. He had the older babies separate from the little ones so I left it that way too. After a week or so we decided the older babies could go out to the coop, they were fully feathered and too big for the brooder. My husband made them a "playpen" that we placed into the coop so the babies and hens could look but not touch. I've read endlessly on here about how to introduce but I couldn't find anything about what to expect during the process, and more specifically besides obvious pecking what is normal and acceptable behavior by the older chickens! I go out multiple times a day to check on everyone and twice I thought we could try a supervised introduction and it was so awful! Now granted I'm totally new to chickens so I was very shocked at just how BRUTAL these hens were to the little guys. Immediately one or two big girls jumped on the babies, pecked at them, and pulled out feathers. It was so sad! I kind of observed for a few minutes and then both times I just had to rescue them and put them back in their pen. So just to be clear the babies are 8-9 weeks old now, so yes they are still kind of small and the older girls are about 9 months. And they've been in the pen out there for almost 2 weeks. Is this normal behavior and should I just let them do their thing? We were hoping to let them out of the pen this weekend and create a more permanent pen with a small opening for them to hide in when they need to. OR should I wait it out a few more weeks possibly when I was going to take out the rest of the babies who are currently 6 weeks and introduce them all at once and just totally confuse the big girls? lol I just wanted a coop and some chickens and this was a great deal with some cute chickens, but I wish the babies would've all been the same age at least!