eep! sorry! i see some new names here! I am Aubrey, I've been doing this thang for a few years. Havent been on much recently because, well heck, i dont know why.
JakesMama, did you happen to keep those hens separate for a little while before putting them in with your birds? A lot of times they will need to be in a separate are where everyone can see eachother for a couple of days to prevent fighting. If you throw em all in together there wil bee some immediate battles as they try to work out their place in the flock. Ive never had an immediate intro go well. That said I have 35 birds of all different breeds and sizes and HAD four roos (now have three) and everyone has come into the flock at different times and everyone gets along perfectly well. The first week is always the hardest but they really need to get to know eachother in a way that they wont hurt one another or feel the need to prove their dominance
Hi Aubrey, I did have them separated. My mini coop/run I use for quarantine is about 2 feet away from the main run, so they have been able to see the other girls for quite some time. After I had them about 2 weeks, I got an australorp and introduced her into the mini coop at night and the RIR attacked her just as bad as she did my red sexlink, even though it was almost pitch black and they were roosting. Thankfully, I was able to just reach in and grab the new girl. I just took a chance and put the australorp in with the rest of my girls and everything worked out great.
I introduced the white leghorn first and the scuffles she had with the others are what I expected. Then I introduced the RIR and that's when things went downhill. It's like the RIR gave the white leghorn more confidence to be even more dominate than needed. I put them back into the mini coop, but I really would rather just find them a new home. I've heard of some fights resulting in torn or completely ripped off combs and seeing how the RIR went after Berta's comb, I don't want to take that chance.
I saw in your other post about a friend looking for some girls, he can have these ones if he wants. I tried to PM mmgerlinger on my phone but I'm not sure if it went through or not. My phone is a POS,
!! The RIR lays almost daily but I haven't gotten an egg from the leghorn in a few days. Also, the RIR has a tiny bit of molt still on her wings that seems to be taking forever to grow back, but it's obviously not affecting her laying. Let me know if your friend is interested, if not, then I'll try mmgerlinger again, but this time on my computer!
PS, 35 chickens is a dream of mine
I'm totally addicted to chickens now!
