Hi all-
I'll gladly accept advice, but more than anything, I just need to send this out to the universe as it's stressing me out.
I hand raised my first 3 girls (in pecking order- Buff Orpington, Golden Laced Wyandotte, Speckled Sussex), they've literally been handled every day of their 1 year of life. They are spoiled rotten.
I knew they were going to be upset when the 2 girls showed up, but I'm really shocked at how brutal they are. The Sussex has been obsessed with trying to get at them. I guess she's trying to hold her #3 position (which she's quite happy with). The Wyandotte has gone after them too. The new girls (a cuckoo maran and americana) are 10 weeks old. The americana is way smaller than the maran, so I'm particularly worried about her.
We've been putting them in the coop at night (around 8:30 before the big girls go up for the night) and taking them out around 5am. They've been safe in the coop. We started out making a small 4-foot high chicken wire pen, but the sussex managed to get in, causing the babies to fly out. Luckily we found them cowering in the corner of our yard. We had one supervised meeting, both the Sussex and Wyandotte attacked them (GLW actually chased them into the run and we had to climb in and get her away from them). I just blocked off a section in the coop/run so they can't escape and are safe from the big girls. We've been doing our best to distract the big girls by doing yard work/gardening and having them follow us around while letting the babies have free reign of our penned in area.
I'm just not sure how much longer we need to keep them apart. This has been going on for a week now. The big girls free-range most days, but we usually leave the pen open so they can get to the coop to lay. We're waiting to have a 6-foot fence installed soon before we let the babies out as well, even though their wings are cut, it's clear they can fly over a 4-foot fence, and right now our fence is only 3-feet.
I realize there's going to be fighting for awhile, but I don't want them seriously injuring or killing the poor things. I guess I'll try again on Monday when I'm off.
Sorry this is so long and rambling, my only chicken friend has a huge flock, so when she adds new chickens, it really doesn't affect the flock like this, so she doesn't really have any advice for me.
I'll gladly accept advice, but more than anything, I just need to send this out to the universe as it's stressing me out.
I hand raised my first 3 girls (in pecking order- Buff Orpington, Golden Laced Wyandotte, Speckled Sussex), they've literally been handled every day of their 1 year of life. They are spoiled rotten.
I knew they were going to be upset when the 2 girls showed up, but I'm really shocked at how brutal they are. The Sussex has been obsessed with trying to get at them. I guess she's trying to hold her #3 position (which she's quite happy with). The Wyandotte has gone after them too. The new girls (a cuckoo maran and americana) are 10 weeks old. The americana is way smaller than the maran, so I'm particularly worried about her.
We've been putting them in the coop at night (around 8:30 before the big girls go up for the night) and taking them out around 5am. They've been safe in the coop. We started out making a small 4-foot high chicken wire pen, but the sussex managed to get in, causing the babies to fly out. Luckily we found them cowering in the corner of our yard. We had one supervised meeting, both the Sussex and Wyandotte attacked them (GLW actually chased them into the run and we had to climb in and get her away from them). I just blocked off a section in the coop/run so they can't escape and are safe from the big girls. We've been doing our best to distract the big girls by doing yard work/gardening and having them follow us around while letting the babies have free reign of our penned in area.
I'm just not sure how much longer we need to keep them apart. This has been going on for a week now. The big girls free-range most days, but we usually leave the pen open so they can get to the coop to lay. We're waiting to have a 6-foot fence installed soon before we let the babies out as well, even though their wings are cut, it's clear they can fly over a 4-foot fence, and right now our fence is only 3-feet.
I realize there's going to be fighting for awhile, but I don't want them seriously injuring or killing the poor things. I guess I'll try again on Monday when I'm off.
Sorry this is so long and rambling, my only chicken friend has a huge flock, so when she adds new chickens, it really doesn't affect the flock like this, so she doesn't really have any advice for me.
