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Story I told on the Brahma thread, but it involves 'Mr. I'm in Charge", aka, the largest Barred Rock cockerel, brother to Piglet.
I tried a little experiment today to see if Brandy would accept him, Piglet and the Brahma chick that in in their group since Bonnie is done with them.
I let Brandy out of her covered pen, but kept her five chicks inside it. Then, we brought the three older chicks from the barn over and put them inside. The chicks worked it out, the largest Barred Rock cockerel telling everyone that he was here and now in charge, thunking heads and neck-wrestling, etc. But then, we put Brandy back inside to see what she'd do about the three newcomers.
At first it was fine. She spotted all three of the stranger-chicks immediately and lightly tapped each on the head, but the big BR cockerel made a mistake. He looked her in the eye, almost challenged her. After that, she kept going to him and giving him the Evil Eye, tapping him on the head just a little bit harder every time.
What was very interesting was that two of her own batch would go stand between her and the BR boy when she got aggressive with him and he'd duck behind them. They did it several times, like they were guarding their new pal from their mom. We thought maybe we might be able to integrate the three with her five and she'd be okay with them, until she began doing a real search-and-destroy mission on the BR cockerel. I had to rescue him from her. She never attacked Piglet or the Brahma chick, just the big boy. I could just hear Lou Gossett's voice from An Officer and a Gentleman coming out of Brandy's beak, saying," Boy! Don't you eyeball me, boy!" So, that won't work. We'll have to wait until she's done with her five before we can integrate the two chick groups.
I tried a little experiment today to see if Brandy would accept him, Piglet and the Brahma chick that in in their group since Bonnie is done with them.
I let Brandy out of her covered pen, but kept her five chicks inside it. Then, we brought the three older chicks from the barn over and put them inside. The chicks worked it out, the largest Barred Rock cockerel telling everyone that he was here and now in charge, thunking heads and neck-wrestling, etc. But then, we put Brandy back inside to see what she'd do about the three newcomers.
At first it was fine. She spotted all three of the stranger-chicks immediately and lightly tapped each on the head, but the big BR cockerel made a mistake. He looked her in the eye, almost challenged her. After that, she kept going to him and giving him the Evil Eye, tapping him on the head just a little bit harder every time.
What was very interesting was that two of her own batch would go stand between her and the BR boy when she got aggressive with him and he'd duck behind them. They did it several times, like they were guarding their new pal from their mom. We thought maybe we might be able to integrate the three with her five and she'd be okay with them, until she began doing a real search-and-destroy mission on the BR cockerel. I had to rescue him from her. She never attacked Piglet or the Brahma chick, just the big boy. I could just hear Lou Gossett's voice from An Officer and a Gentleman coming out of Brandy's beak, saying," Boy! Don't you eyeball me, boy!" So, that won't work. We'll have to wait until she's done with her five before we can integrate the two chick groups.
