- Feb 13, 2009
- 32
- 0
- 32
I'm fairly new at this chicken business. Last spring we had three polish hens that grew up together from hatchlings. At about 10 months old, one died from a dog attack. We were worried that the remaining two would get too cold in the coop come wintertime, so we got two more chicks. We wanted to try something different, so we got two cuckoo marans. We raised them from chicks inside, then put them in the coop with the polish hens, but separated by a plastic mesh screen. When they seemed big enough, we put them all together. The two older polish hens went ballistic on the younger marans, even though they were about the same size. Not just pecking them, but chasing them around the coop and pecking them repeatedly - and the marans just took it, wouldn't fight back. So, we separated them a bit longer. Then a huge heat wave came around, and one of the polish hens died from overheating. The other three we let free range for the rest of the summer so they could find some deep shade and they seemed to get along fairly well, even at night, sharing a coop peacefully. So, when it started to get cooler, we decided to put the three girls back in the coop full time. For the most part, they got a long pretty well, and the polish one only pecked at the marans every now and then. Then one morning, I woke up and went to feed the birds, and one of the marans and been ripped to shreds. Our coop is intruder proof, so I'm positive the polish hen killed her. So, she's now in isolation in another coop. (she never seemed to need much social interaction anyway) She is free range during the day, so can still see the other hens, but just can't get to them. We then got two new hens, because we thought the remaining maran would need a friend. The two new ones were raised together from hatchlings, and were about the same age as our maran. We kept them in the same coop, but separated for a week or so, and then put the three of them together. Now, they're all kind of messing with each other. It's not really bad, but our maran's comb is almost entirely pecked off and she's lost a lot of feathers (which she might be molting anyway) and the other night, one of the new ones wouldn't let the maran or the other hen in the coop to sleep. I just don't know if this is normal and I"m just overreacting, or if the integration isn't going well... or if there's something I can do? any advice? All the posts I've read seem to say that the integration should go smoothly, except for a few squabbles when establishing the pecking order. But this has been going on for a few months now, and I don't know if it's going to get any better? And after seeing one chicken "murdered" I tend to be over-cautious... any suggestions?
