In a way the second day together wasn’t as good as the first. The problem now, is that the new girls are spending the entire day at the top of the ladder, and that isn’t moving things on. If I took them down from the ladder the other girls immediately chased them back up again.
Speckles is in a dust bath
Freckles is dust bathing on the other side of the wire
Peaches and Barley, Emerald and Rusty are here
Barley and Peaches are doing their impression of book ends
These three spend all their time here
I make sure they have some food
They have some mash
If I chase them down they get chased back up again. I worried that they were getting no food, so I did this, but this is a one off only. I realise that it isn’t the answer because it isn’t helping them to mix and it enables to them stay here all day.
At the end of the day I separated them again which gave them some time to have a scratch around and some food and water. On Saturday I felt that we were making progress but on Sunday they spent their entire day on top of the ladder. I have come to an impasse. How do I move them on from this!
I think the next stage is to try to get them together at night and see if that moves things on. This is definitely the most difficult integration I have ever done. I sometimes despair of them ever being united but I know that we will get there in the end. I have to keep trying different things until I find out what works.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
It seems like one step forward two steps back at the moment,
but you know you will get there in the end.
You have hit the nail on the head, it really does seem that way. Today at one point Rusty was perched next to the new girls, at the top of the ladder, and yet every time they came down from the perch to the food dish she chased them back up the ladder again. This is driving me nuts. I am going to try sleeping them together tonight to see if that helps things along. That should be fun!
Keep working on it. It just takes time. My babies are going to be a year old in April and some of them still get snarled at and chased by the big girls. I don’t like it. But it is called a pecking order for a reason. You’ll get there with them.
It is hard when you see how awful they can be to each other. I know the pecking order has to be but they get that and yet still get chased. I know it will sort itself out in the end but is so hard at this stage.