Pecking order

[cute chicks here]

Percy is smaller and much lighter than Petunia,probably because she was half starved when I rescued her. I give them a good chicken food from our local feed mill and she is looking better now.I give lots of veggies for treats also. I let them free range a couple hours a day also.The reason I seperated them is cause Percy was in the dog coop in the corner and Petunia was pecking and pecking at her. I am going to try and make their area larger and then try putting them together again. I will have to post a picture of the two of them together so you can see the size difference. I think the lady who gave me Petunia might have lied about her age or maybe Percy is just behind in her development.

 

[cute chicks here]

The two chicks are getting along much better today. I free ranged them more, made their coop bigger and gave them some high protein food. All this seemed to help

 

[Ksane]

Quote:
Wow, that's good to hear. Please keep us informed. I'm going through the same thing right now with 3 mo old chickens. It's the new ones that are being so mean, mine aren't being mean at all. I've got the 4 new ones seperated right now from the others. It was getting pretty out of hand.

 

[wayne1614]

I tried to do that with adding 2 hens with 8 other hens and after aweek of watching them pick the crap out of the newbies I sold them

 

[ketchup]

I have a similar question, I have two bigger sized 6 month old chickens (barred rocks) and then recently introduced a 5 month old silkie. The silkie is so docile and small and they did try to peck at her (or him) quiet a bit when I first got her. One pegged her in a corner and would not let up so I decided not to put them in the same run/coop at first. I made her a second one right next to theirs. Now they roam freely in the yard but do try to run after her here and there. How long should I wait to put her in the same run/ coop with them. I am afraid they will hurt her really bad if I left her in there because of her size especailly.

 

[cute chicks here]

Mine still chases the younger one alittle when they are free ranging but has been good in the coop. I kept them apart 3 or 4 days.The cornering and pecking has stopped for now. I also put seperate food and water in different locations in the pen and also someone said to give them alittle dry dog or catfood to up their protein and this seemed to work. I hope you can get them together. I know it was really disturbing when my big chicken was picking on the smaller one.

 

[Dowie]

Quote:
It's brutal to watch, but they will sort it out. Good on you for rescuing the poor little hen who wasn't being cared for.

 

[Nicole01]

You might only need to keep them separated for a couple weeks, but in the same coop. I used a wire dog kennel and switched groups for the kennel, so there was no dispute on who ruled the coop. It took me 3 weeks and now they get along really well. I also gave them supervised time together. I did not allow pecking for the first 3 weeks.

 

[ketchup]

Thanks so much for the feedback!! I am going to have to try to put them in the same run then. It is hard to separate in there. It is not too big, but...well see!