Pecking Order Challenge

[Functional Chickens]

Hello! First Post ... Recently, a person from our neighborhood came onto school property with their child and their dog and took one of our silkies out of their loft, and their dog killed it. Horrible for everyone ...

A person donated two polish-silkie chickens to our flock. Another family donated a coop .. another donated feed ...so much concern. The polish-silkies have been in quarantine for about a month, and now we (my students and I) turned their coop around to face the yard where our flock congregates.

Our two remaining silkies just bop around them in their cage. No issues. The standard sizes, two buff orpingtons and a barred rock, are interested. One of the buffs is too interested ... she is on top of our pecking order. She was staring our polish-silkie newcomers down in their cage ... I am worried.

First question: Will my silkie hens and polish-silkie hens get along? They are both so sweet, with no issues between them. They never seem to want or need a pecking order. The silkies have their own small coop, and only congregate with the big girls during their free time at the beginning and the end of the day. The polish-silkies are always cuddling, and are getting very friendly with me. Does anyone have experience with these breeds living together?

Second question: What am I going to do with my top girls? Yikes ... Our top buff looked really mean today ..

Thanks.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Hopefully you can set this up as look don't touch JMHO my silkie have their own coop

 

[aart]

Silkies and polish can be easy marks for aggression due to their head dresses making for limited eyesight.

It's nice that folks wanted to 'help' by donating more birds,
but it can also be a risk of introducing pests and disease.

You may already know these things due to your research, but....
Integration Basics:
It's all about territory and resources(space/food/water).
Existing birds will almost always attack new ones to defend their resources.
Understanding chicken behaviors is essential to integrating new birds into your flock.

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact.

In adjacent runs, spread scratch grains along the dividing mesh, best if mesh is just big enough for birds to stick their head thru, so they get used to eating together.

The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no copious blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down and beaten unmercilessly, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide 'out of line of sight'(but not a dead end trap) and/or up and away from any bully birds. Roosts, pallets or boards leaned up against walls or up on concrete blocks, old chairs tables, branches, logs, stumps out in the run can really help. Lots of diversion and places to 'hide' instead of bare wide open run.
Good ways to 'clutter up' the run:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-cluttered-run.1323792/


Oh, and.....Welcome to BYC! @Functional Chickens
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[Functional Chickens]

So, great stuff. The new chickens, though donated, were selected for their temperament and their silkie roots. The woman who donated them did so because of her familial link to persons with severe disabilities.

The new ladies are in their own coop with wire all around. They were in quarantine for 4 weeks. My older ladies can look but not touch, but my buff is still staring daggers at them. My students and I are thinking to integrate them with the silkies in two weeks. After we work on them getting along, we will allow the big girls to join in for a short amount of time.

I was convinced by the hatchery that donated the chickens to me that mixing standard buffs and silkies was a good idea. Yah .. not so much. The buffs are too driven by the pecking order. The barred rock is ok to be in the middle. But the silkies get the worst of it. This is why everyone is in their own coop - big girls, silkies, polish/silkies. My hope would be to integrate the silkies and the polish/silkies for really cold nights.

What I love about this post however was the suggestion for clutter in the yard. What a brilliant idea! We don't have a lot of space, but my students would love to build some obstacles.

Really good stuff, and thank you for your answer.

 

[aart]

We don't have a lot of space,

Watch this too...crowding can cause behavioral problems.
Subordinate birds need to be able to get ~6' away from their superiors...or they may end up getting beaten up because they appear to not being properly submissive.

 

[pennyJo1960]

So, great stuff. The new chickens, though donated, were selected for their temperament and their silkie roots. The woman who donated them did so because of her familial link to persons with severe disabilities.

The new ladies are in their own coop with wire all around. They were in quarantine for 4 weeks. My older ladies can look but not touch, but my buff is still staring daggers at them. My students and I are thinking to integrate them with the silkies in two weeks. After we work on them getting along, we will allow the big girls to join in for a short amount of time.

I was convinced by the hatchery that donated the chickens to me that mixing standard buffs and silkies was a good idea. Yah .. not so much. The buffs are too driven by the pecking order. The barred rock is ok to be in the middle. But the silkies get the worst of it. This is why everyone is in their own coop - big girls, silkies, polish/silkies. My hope would be to integrate the silkies and the polish/silkies for really cold nights.

What I love about this post however was the suggestion for clutter in the yard. What a brilliant idea! We don't have a lot of space, but my students would love to build some obstacles.

Really good stuff, and thank you for your answer.

I know some have them together but I knew the ones I have would not get along they will do this with any new bird but killed a EE I had picking on her I did not even try the silkie in their

 

[Functional Chickens]

I just wanted to update this posting. The silkies and the frizzies (polish/silkies) get along amazingly well. The big girls (2 buffs and a barred rock) are doing fine with them, just a little pecking to let them know who is in charge. This transition has taken all of 2 months, and we are still just letting them range together for about 30 minutes twice a day.

One of the reason the pecking order seemed to be an issue is that our top hen, Fat Millie, had the beginnings of bumblefoot, and that was making her quite irritable. I removed it non-surgically (with one of my students), and it is healing nicely. I also upped their protein, as some layer feed had been donate to our program with slightly less protein that the one I had been buying (16% versus 18%). So I added some more mealworms, an occasional scrambled egg, and some sea kelp. EVERYONE is better.

There are more challenges ahead, I am sure. But this one is a bit better.

These are our frizzies, named Yolko Ono and Hei-Hei. They are just lovely hens - a bit goth, but great dispositions.