I had a bit of time yesterday afternoon so I spent a couple of hours in with the chickens. At first I closed off the bottom half of the run by closing the hatch and the new gate and mixed the girls together. I soon realised that this wasn’t a good idea. With less space for the new girls to run they kept getting trapped in a corner.
Cinnamon and Dandelion in the corner and Apricot has gone behind the shelter
I don’t know if missing, mixing them yesterday set them back, or if it was the smaller space, but Rusty was back in full on fight mode. She went for Apricot and tried to pin her down and pulled a beak full of feathers from her back. This was no good at all. She just wouldn’t leave her alone.
I quickly shut the main flock in the new girl’s section and left the new girls on their own in the now smaller section so that they could get more familiar with the patio area. I ushered them towards the patio.
Dandelion and Cinnamon finally discovered the food was here
They spent the longest time yet on the patio, feeding and preening. This is a small step forward. Dandelion looks headless with her head in the dish but all the other photos had one or other of them blurred.
As usual these girls make the most of a dust bath in this area
Apricot’s close up
Three girls in a row
At this stage I decided to shut Rusty and Freckles in the bottom part of the run and let the bigger girls mix with the new girls. For a while it was only Emerald in with the new girls as the rest were still enjoying their dust bath.
Emerald takes no notice of Apricot
Emerald and Apricot were scratching and pecking next to each other with no problem at all.
Rusty and Freckles are in chicken jail
They are all fine as long as they are separated by the wire but all hell lets loose once they are together. I can’t believe the only shot of this has Dandelion headless again, preening this time.
It’s Emerald’s turn in the dust bath
The rest of the big girls left the dust bath and Emerald decided it was her turn. She reminds me of a duck on water in this photo.
Dandelion and Cinnamon are fine with Emerald too
Emerald is top girl and has no need to throw her weight about. She is fine with the new girls. What is it with the headless shots, now it’s Emeralds turn!
Cinnamon discovers the log
Dandelion is soon beside her
Everything was fine as long as Rusty and Freckles were out of the equation. I let Rusty and Freckles out of jail and Rusty went straight after the new girls again. I decided that was enough for one day and separated them.
The thing that seems crazy is that if we were just mixing the little girls with the bigger girls there would be no problem. I would feel confident mixing them now. It’s Rusty and Freckles that are slowing this whole process down. I got it totally wrong when I first thought that they would probably mix first.
I should have known from the past that it is always the bottom girls that cause the most mayhem and I now realise that it doesn’t matter about the size. I wonder if Rusty is ever going to allow the new girls to mix.
I am guessing that we will get there eventually but that it is going to take a long time. I thought that in the future I would probably always add seramas to my flock but I am now wondering if that would always make it this difficult. Time will tell.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
It can be so frustrating, but it’s good that the bigger girls seem to have accepted the new girls. You;re absolutely right about girls low in the pecking order, who seem to grasp chances to impose their authority. You’ll get there eventually.
It is always the bottom girls for me. The annoying thing is that the new girls now accept that they are below Rusty and Freckles, they don’t contest it but just run, so why can’t Rusty give it up and let them be! I suppose she will accept them in the end. She has better days and bad days. I just keep telling myself that we will get there in the end as you say.
Lovley picture of Dandelion,I am sure you will get there, and have a happy flock again.
Her feathers remind of the ruffles on a ladies blouse. Her pins on her head are just beginning to open so she will soon have head feathers which will improve her looks. I know we will get there in the end.
You haven’t really been at it that long yet, don’t worry, they’ll get there. Things may also become easier once the new girls hormones get going once they start laying.
It’s funny you should that because I just said to my husband that Rusty’s comb has got a lot brighter red in the last few days and I think she is about to start laying and he said that adding new girls while her hormones are raging is probably why she is being so aggressive. We have always found that even firm friends have little spats when they are coming in to lay. Rusty has even been giving Freckles a peck if she gets in her way so I think that may well be why she is behaving like this. It is interesting how much their hormones effect them.
I find that too. My pekins Bernadette and Shelley are the best of friends, but when Shelley comes into lay they always have a few scuffles.
I used to be totally shocked to see best friends having spats but I have become used to it now. Since keeping chickens I have learned how their hormones effect them in ways I would never have imagined before.