What to expect when show birds are removed from flock temporarily?

[Luke13:34]

My daughter's first 4H fair is coming up next weekend. We are taking two birds with us. They will need to be bathed on Wednesday night and kept in a seperate cage in the garage until the fair on Saturday. One of the show birds is the Queen of my roost. I'm not sure where the other falls in the pecking order.

My question is.. will the others try to re-establish the pecking order when the two are taken out? What will happen when they are brought back? Is this going to cause a big fight in my presently very calm coop? Also, others have mentioned that their birds stop laying when a fellow chicken dies. Will the ones not going to the fair think that the two were killed and stop laying for a few days? Are they going to be mad if we don't bring back souvenirs and cotton candy?

 

[kittycooks]

My flock has a very strong second hen who takes over when alpha goes visiting. We don't do shows overnight so I cannot speak to that. What I have learned is chickens can count to about four but can recognize up to a hundred individuals. If I take two birds out visiting, the rest of my flock is not that concerned. When I had a smaller flock, they would always get agitated if there were less than four birds in the run. I also think they learn over time. Have you practiced taking the show birds out and then returning them later? And bring treats when all the birds are together again.

 

[Luke13:34]

Thanks, kittycooks. The Queen bird has been taken out a couple of times to go to 4H meetings, but that was just a couple of hours each time. I guess I'll just have to see what happens.