Pecking order drama- advice?

[melslp13]

I have six 9 week old buff orps and two 5 week old white leghorns. We kept the white babies in their own baby pen in the coop for a week, however they kept finding ways to escape and hang with the big girls, so after a week separated I decided to take the baby pen wall down. They went 2 days getting along splendidly, but today when I went in to start morning chores, the babies acted terrified of the big girls.Since then, I've seen the babies try twice to get out into the run to be in the sun and the big girls promptly chase them back into the coop and stalk and peck them. No blood yet. Should I let them figure out pecking order themselves, or put the baby pen back up and hope the little girls stay in this time? My instinct says protect them, but I can't imagine keeping them pent up til they're full size (they peep like crazy to get out in the run) and I know either way somebody has got to be at the bottom of the pecking order.

 

[melslp13]

Nevermind... I put 'em back in their little grow out pen. They'll have to be content. It's sad becaues they love to be with the others but they're gonna get killed if I can't supervise 24/7, which I can't. I can't even easily let them into the run with the others a bit each day... they don't have an easy door to let them out there (it's a chickenwire/wood frame wall-off inside the coop)... and it's such a pain to feed/water them in that pen and clean the poop because they're so dern flighty and try to make a run out the access door into the freedom of the yard at every opportunity.

 

[bobbi-j]

You're going to have to deal with it sooner or later, although I do think 5-week olds might be a little small to be in with the bigger ones. It does work better if they're closer to the same size. Is there any way you can just hook the fence on one side for easier opening and closing? Maybe then you could do some supervised visitation...

 

[Oscarsgravett]

I had the exact problem with mine. What I did was I put plenty of entertainment in there pen e.g several clumps of grass, soil and all, toss edible weeds in with them - chick weed, etc. - toss in fresh veggie peelings, toss in hay or straw. I think, for hens, interest comes mainly from eating. This source of entertainment distracts them and makes them forget about their new additions. Hope this helps