The chicken pecking order!!

[7L Farm]

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Thanks!! I'll probably take your idea . I have a cage but its small. They will both fit but for two days.

 

[Wild Trapper]

I noticed that chickens do hang out according to color more than size. However, I will not own anymore RIR chickens, at least not with my regular flock. I think they are one of the meanest of all the chicken breeds I've every owned. It also seem to be a genetic characteristic of any breeds that carry the RIR gene. Even some of my EEs that are cross breeds with some RIR in their ancestry seem to be a little meaner than I would prefer.

 

[7L Farm]

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You mean their mean to each other right. My reds aren't mean to me but they do peck each other. I like them because they lay alot of eggs.

 

[Wild Trapper]

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Right, to each other and any odd or different color chicken in the flock

I have two mutts that are 1/2 Easter Egger or EE chicken and half Golden Comet. Golden Comets or GC are a hybrid chicken from RIR female and White Leghorn male. The combination make for a very good brown egg layer that seems to resemble the RIR, but not so mean to each other. So, these two EE mutts are just pullets, but seem to be shaping up to be good egg layers as well, one lays a minty blue-green egg, the other a pinkish egg. They are not real mean to the others, except they seem to annoy my Araucana rooster, following him around and pecking at his feathers, same with the two GCs in the flock. The regular EEs do not seem to do that near as much. The roo is a recent addition to the flock. I'm not sure where this pair stand in the pecking order, but they hang together when it comes time to roost at night. I suspect that one of the GCs is at or close to the top in the order, with the other a close second, followed by one of the regular EEs. I have 11 hens right now and that is close to capacity for my coop size. The rooster is quite hen pecked....

but he doesn't seem to mind much. They peck, he jumps, What else is new?

 

[7L Farm]

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Well, I did what you said. I'm not sure I got the hen with the lowest pecking order but I have the newbie & another hen together in a horse trough with wire on top so they can't get out. I hope this works. In two days will find out.

 

[7L Farm]

The original girl won't stop talking BOK, BOK, BOK> I promise I'll never do this again. I knew I shouldn't have from the get go. If your thinking about integrating I personally say no. I'm a nervous wreck. It's not good for the chickens & yourself . I've been dealing with this problem for almost a week & you would think I'D have some progress NOPE.

 

[Hennyhandler]

This is an interesting topic and brings to my attention that maybe my plan won't work as well as I thought. I have RIR's, barred rocks, and one easter egger. I want to get a silkie and have her sit on eggs. I would like a white one though and you know that is def a different color. The eggs would be different breeds too but the silkie would have to be integrated first and I knew doing this with one would be hard as it is but hearing that different colors than the other chickens seems to cause more of a pecking order problem worries me.
SO I had also decided to get a buff orpington egg in with the others I want her to sit on and with buffs being known to be broody would it be better to get a pullet that is a buff instead and then have a silkie egg in with the other eggs so she can be with the other chicks when they are integrated?

 

[Wild Trapper]

I have integrated chickens a lot - anything from one to ten or more, depending on how many I already have and if there is room to do it. Yes there is fighting and pecking for a day or three, but after a while they all settle down in their own little clicks and learn to abide each others presence. That is the one thing I don't like about the red varieties of chickens, they seem more prone to fighting than some other gentler breeds, in my experience. The hard part of it all is for the owner, especially if you are sensitive to what is going on in the coop. The more space you have the easier it will be for the outsider to be grafted into the flock.

The first chicks I bought were mostly RIRs. I wanted them because, that is the breed my parents had when I was a child growing up on the farm 50 some years ago. My dad died in 1957, the year I turned 11. Mom sold out and we butchered all the chickens and moved to town. I never got chickens again until I was in my 30's. Those were White Rocks I got when my wife's brother got a divorce. Then I got another flock of WRs when her dad sold out and moved to Florida. After those were gone is when I bought those RIRs at TSC. Those were my last RIRs I will buy as long as there is any other breed available.

 

[7L Farm]

Well, no luck with putting them together. The newbie kept banging her head against the wire trying to get out. I noticed a small cut on her so I immediately took her out. I'm just gonna let them work it out. If it works great.