(update)Moved free ranged Old English Gamefowls to run with coop gone bad

[strangeanimal]

Hi all ,

yes AGAIN a post about my Old English gamefowls that were used to have a life happily free ranged in their own small forest and recently ( +- week and half ago , lost track , really ) moved into my backyard .
No this is not going well at all , and to be fair here , I am so sorry for the poor chickens ..
day one I had never seen such a sad view on chickens , no eating , drinking or exploring the area and a few kept trying to go up high to feel safe and got stuck in the birdwire I made to give them atleast ONE stupid small tree ...
so as all the chickens were moved , day 3 : almost any chicken got stuck in the wire above them , solution ?
Removing the net but risk of losing them to predatory animals , called my friend the vet and said to him I wished to clip their wings as it is impossible to keep either the net above them when they constantly tried to fly trough it and secondly I did not want to risk to take the net off . But i was not sure because these birds are so used to liberty and now clipping their wing one side feels as if I'm taking away a leg from my own as I'm used to walking ...
OK the birds were scared as hell as we approached the run and all they could hide was the coop , but no they are far from stupid and did not all jump into that , they kept looking everywhere to get out and most of them jumped into the tree and again got stuck so we could grab them . After each of them had a wing clipped , unable to fly we both saw how this went , these birds need another place , they are unlikely just going to adapt .. the idea only but unfurtunately the truth as I notice this day in day out these birds are going insane .
In the morning around 4 am they start to do what they already did before , the roo's start to crow and the neighbours to complain ( I just ignore them because they knew my gamefowls were coming and all of them had received a lettre from me that IF they objected they needed to contact me which they did NOT at all , no they only imagined themselfs this : omelets , boiled eggs , cakes , cookies , epic baking for free and getting away their tablescraps without paying a single cent) , how poetic and choatic I'm sounding , blame the chickens this time for that ...
when no one is around they seem to do better ofcourse , I noticed when hiding behind the closed curtains one roo and three hens carefully getting closer to the feeder I made in pvcpipes but each time the food falls they get scared away , other behavior is being afraid of people they hear in the distance thinking they are not safe at all and the panic is to hear all day long .
Even when I try to get close to them or just pass them the panic starts and they only stop like an hour after seeing me ( its only then to see Im gone ??? ) .
Now the original plan was not like this but to have a few of these birds only or even none at all because I knew this , they are wild birds and I wished to get them that kind of life with a new owner but only few people had any interest in them at all . so next to the fact these birds entered run and coop I have two new birds added to this group and wow what a surprise today !
Thanks to the new hens that are not even used to the run and coop the old flock is no longer scared of the feeder ! today the first step to go all together for a nice bite thanks to Matilda the youngest not laying yet hen ! she was curious and got up to the feeder and when she started to notice that each time she stepped on the second bar underneath the food came out she decided to play Jackpot and suddenly the white roo and one brown/patridge Gamefowl started to check it out and ate , I was sure the rest would follow but no it was one roo , carefully eating and one hen (the broody ! ) but still , this situation does not look good as they won't even take any food from me as I just put it in the run , hang it up or whatever ( lettuce and so on ) they just seem to object their captivity and do not understand , what is now honestly best to do because these birds are the most unhappy birds I have ever seen now and they used to be extremely happy and good , I notice the weightlosses and sudden dirty birds as they used to be so pretty doing good as a free range bird . Getting worried ...
Reaching out to you for the sake of this old flock ...

 

[strangeanimal]

ow p.s. : about these 2 new young hens before misunderstandings follow !!
These two young ones were already selected BEFORE the old flock moved in !! the original plan was this : one Old English Game hen OR roo , whatever was LEFT of the flock in other words as the plan was to get the Old Gamefowls to go FREE RANGED elsewhere plus the time I normally had to give them a new home has been reduced so the two new ones waited in fact very long , ok the seller waited long enough before I picked them up , he understood my situation and I asked him to keep the birds for me as I went to pay already too , I wanted to have this breed anyhow ( marans Blue and a white bird I forgot the name from ) so the fact these are now added to the flock has not to do with not thinking it trough etc , it was just not according to plan / timing .. ty for your understanding

 

[JacquelineJ]

Those birds have been through "hell". Of course they're not settling quickly.. I mean, they're in an entirely new world, they don't understand ANYTHING and they've been 'mauled' (in their minds, of course I understand why you clipped wings, I'm not blaming you, I'm just telling you what the bird probably thinks). I'm no expert but getting domestic chickens in with them is probably a GOOD idea. At least the more domestic chicken won't be scared witless. This should help the others adjust. Give them a few weeks and then see how they're managing.