BDutch's bantam flock & natural breeding projects #5 🪺 🪺 and #6

[RoyalChick]

I remember that exchange and remember you saying OK to use the photo. You are not dreaming!

It is post 177

 

[BDutch]

Thanks Royal. I went back a few pages to find thats it’s all there.

Here’s not much exciting news on the chicken front. We had lots of awful weather and stil a few hens that are pestering the chicks. My arm hurts (nerve pain) and I hope it will get better soon with the medicine’s the doctor prescribed last Friday. We did have a nice weekend with friends who came over for the weekend.

Upcoming week the weather forecasts are better and we want to take off the party tent cover off again soon. Hopefully the hens ( Kraai en Katrientje ) change their behaviour and the chicks will get more confident soon. See what happens if we pick the little ones up from the branch in the run around nightfall and put them on the roost in the small coop.

Chicks:

Museum:

 

[BDutch]

My husband likes to use muppet names again. In tradition with Ini mini? Janice and many other chickens we once had like Pino, Tommy, Zoë, Oscar, Koekie, Graaf Tel (count).

Chef an Abby stick.

Foto: Ini Mini in front and Janice on the left behind her.
Next are Kraai (she got her name from previous ownwer) and Katrientje named after from Donald Ducks girlfriend.

 

[BDutch]

Tea time.
Two chickens visited me to drink a huge cup of tea today.

First Chef came to drink from the plant pot with rain water. It rained a lot. And it seems she prefers this water over fresh water from the tap .

Shortly after, Pearl came along to do exactly the same.

Chef and Abby, don’t peep amymore. So from now on I will refer to them as the ‘pullets’.
They still sleep in the run under the party tent. I think they even don't want to try to sleep inside anymore.

Its obvious the pullets are both at the bottom of the pecking order. During the day the 2 pullets stay together most of the time. The adults don’t bother them except if there is yummie food, and maybe they still would do so at roost time.

 

[NanaK]

One thing I've noticed with my flock is that young birds seem to stay with their group. It's almost like having 2 flocks in one. After the pullets start laying they seem to mesh together more like one flock. I think these girls will work things out eventually.

I just integrated 6 pullets into my flock. They were raised right inside the run separated by fencing. They had a separate entrance to the coop into an area separated from the flock with fencing. So they were sleeping inside the coop since very young.

When I let them start intermingling, they made the smoothest transition I've ever seen. I was so happy! I always hated the pecking and picking on the young birds. I know next time I raise chicks, I will definitely do this again.

The pullets (14 weeks old) are still staying together most of the time in the run. They are sleeping with the mature ladies on the roost at night with very little fuss.

 

[BDutch]

One thing I've noticed with my flock is that young birds seem to stay with their group. It's almost like having 2 flocks in one. After the pullets start laying they seem to mesh together more like one flock. I think these girls will work things out eventually.

I just integrated 6 pullets into my flock. They were raised right inside the run separated by fencing. They had a separate entrance to the coop into an area separated from the flock with fencing. So they were sleeping inside the coop since very young.

When I let them start intermingling, they made the smoothest transition I've ever seen. I was so happy! I always hated the pecking and picking on the young birds. I know next time I raise chicks, I will definitely do this again.

The pullets (14 weeks old) are still staying together most of the time in the run. They are sleeping with the mature ladies on the roost at night with very little fuss.

I had several chicks with broodies before who integrated perfectly too. Twice it didn’t work nicely. In 2019 with Janice after her two brothers left and she was left alone (a lonely 12-14 week old pullet) . She got harassed at roosting time.
Two years later I had 3 bantam RIR and they did fine, still having the same adult chickens. And now, still with mostly the same adult chickens and the same coop/pop door, some adults started pestering the large chick group. This happened after I broke up the unwanted broody behaviour of the broody chickens. It seemed there was a connection to between my pestering the broodies and the ex-broodies pestering the chicks.

Now the large group is gone and only 2 pullets stayed. I haven’t tried changing their preference to roost outside. I wanted them to adjust to the new situation being with only 2 instead of 9. But its a week now since the 7 youngsters left and it seems that the pullets are getting more confident. They start to explore separate from each other too. Yesterday Chef was out and about with Ini mini for a while. She is the friendliest and most social hen in my flock.

From this evening on I want to pick them up in the evening and put them in the coop where they are more safe. But I’m not sure if that is wise.

Other possibility is to wait until they start to roost in the coop themselves. But I need to take off the cover soon (before the stormy season starts) and also because the bushes in the run need water. Another thing is that the run is not a very secure build and I know that a polecat lives nearby from people who had two rabbits killed in the night. So wait untill.. is very temporary.
Maybe it helps to take down the cover and the branch they roost upon this weekend and see what happens next.

 

[ManueB]

It's hard to say how it will go without trying. I pushed my chicks out of their nest by blocking it and while the first night I had to put them on the roost, after two nights it was all right. For @RoyalChick's pentagonists the first two nights were very stressful!

I think I would give it a try now, before you really need them to be in the coop, so you have a bit of time to adjust if things don't go as planned. If they don't go in the coop taking of the tent and the branch after two or three nights, I would try putting them in once it's a bit dark.

 

[BDutch]

It's hard to say how it will go without trying. I pushed my chicks out of their nest by blocking it and while the first night I had to put them on the roost, after two nights it was all right. For @RoyalChick's pentagonists the first two nights were very stressful!

I think I would give it a try now, before you really need them to be in the coop, so you have a bit of time to adjust if things don't go as planned. If they don't go in the coop taking of the tent and the branch after two or three nights, I would try putting them in once it's a bit dark.

I took away the branche and the cover yesterday. Put the branche up again in the second run and watched what the chicks would do.
Chef jumped on the branch in the new place but Abby wasn’t following. In the evening they both jumped in the laurel, near to the spot were they were roosting the previous week. There was no attempt to go inside the coop.

In the second run:

When it was getting dark and the chickens were calm, I took Chef and Abby inside the coop and blocked the entrance so they couldn’t go back to the run. Soon after the auto door closed.There was no disturbance.

During the day I noticed that the pullets were chased out of the coop. I always have feed and drinks in two places so everyone has enough possibilities to eat and drink.

Despite the chasing events I was hoping the pullets would go inside before dark by themselves. We had a dinner party and wasn’t at home until 23.00 h.

My hope fell into pieces seeing Chef and Abby in the laurel. I checked the weather forecast . No rain expected and I left them in the run. Maybe I try to move them into the coop again tomorrow after the hens have roosted. We will see. The weather forecasts are great this week. So there is no hurry.

 

[BDutch]

The pullets didn’t go inside the coop tonight. But they are sleeping in a different spot on a piece of perspex (part of the coops roof) . It not straight but has a slight angle. It can’t be comfortable.
No rain expected, so I left them in the run to sort it out themselves.

A cat of a neighbour (right) and Chef not bothered at all.

 

[Sequel]

I got way behind in this thread but all caught up now! I’m happy for you that you got some of the problems with too many birds resolved.
I’ve found it challenging to add birds to a small flock. Especially since now I have 5 out of 6 hybrid layers. They are active friendly chickens but the last bunch I had were homicidal!