Apologies for the long post, but it will save a lot of questions in the long run. We've had chickens for 8 years now and introduced chicks to the flock many times and have not had these issues.
3 (was 5) of my 15 chooks are commercial RIR (chickens—I'm in Australia) from an egg farm. We've had them for 2 years now, and some of their behaviour is odd. They randomly have sessions of catching imaginary flys that has all of the rest of our flock mystified because there is nothing there; we have checked. Anything with a spot of dirt gets pecked at constantly by all of them - to the point where we have had to remove all bags from the garden. I was using their feed bags as potato grow bags for instance, but they peck at it so much that they are taking the 'ink' off the bags. They peck constantly at the vehicles to the point that we joke that they are complaining that our vehicles are dirty (we live rurally on gravel roads, so they are, but that isn't the point).
We have accepted most of it and tried to modify our operations to accommodate the behavioural issues they came with, but one particular chook (named Cassandra) is totally obsessed, in a bad way, with our new chicks.
We have 3 * 8-week-old chicks and 5 * 4 1/2-week-old chicks. They have their own small chook house. The big chicks are out with the main flock free-ranging (and stay out of her way) now during the day but sleep on the verandah in a large dog cage covered over at night - they need to grow some more yet before we can move them into the main chook house, not least of all because it is some distance from the house and the issues with Cassandra. The little chicks are in a small 2-chook chookhouse and still need heat at night (I'm in the colder part of Australia at 900m altitude, and nighttime temps are still dropping to single figures.)
Cassandra, or pest, as she has become nicknamed, won't leave the chicks alone. Even when they are inside the chookhouse, she is obsessed with them, wanting to get in, and spends all her time focused on them. When they are out of the cage on the verandah, she constantly bullies them to the point where feathers are flying, and the chicks retire to the chookhouse, which we have cut a very small entrance into to stop her getting in there - she will follow them into the roosting area and is pecking at them and going for them all of the time.
Each time we catch her doing this, we lock her up in the dog cage, which is where the big chicks roost. It is the only way we can get the little chicks to come out of their house. We have had the little chicks (and the big chicks before them) on the verandah behind wire so that the flock could see them and get accustomed to them. The rest of the flock have, it is just Pest and to some degree the other 2, that have yet to accept the chicks at all.
Does anyone have any ideas on how I can break her from this obsessive behaviour? Today, it took less than 5 minutes with the little chicks being out before she was causing issues and back in the dog cage. She spent all of yesterday locked up, able to see but not get at the chicks.
3 (was 5) of my 15 chooks are commercial RIR (chickens—I'm in Australia) from an egg farm. We've had them for 2 years now, and some of their behaviour is odd. They randomly have sessions of catching imaginary flys that has all of the rest of our flock mystified because there is nothing there; we have checked. Anything with a spot of dirt gets pecked at constantly by all of them - to the point where we have had to remove all bags from the garden. I was using their feed bags as potato grow bags for instance, but they peck at it so much that they are taking the 'ink' off the bags. They peck constantly at the vehicles to the point that we joke that they are complaining that our vehicles are dirty (we live rurally on gravel roads, so they are, but that isn't the point).
We have accepted most of it and tried to modify our operations to accommodate the behavioural issues they came with, but one particular chook (named Cassandra) is totally obsessed, in a bad way, with our new chicks.
We have 3 * 8-week-old chicks and 5 * 4 1/2-week-old chicks. They have their own small chook house. The big chicks are out with the main flock free-ranging (and stay out of her way) now during the day but sleep on the verandah in a large dog cage covered over at night - they need to grow some more yet before we can move them into the main chook house, not least of all because it is some distance from the house and the issues with Cassandra. The little chicks are in a small 2-chook chookhouse and still need heat at night (I'm in the colder part of Australia at 900m altitude, and nighttime temps are still dropping to single figures.)
Cassandra, or pest, as she has become nicknamed, won't leave the chicks alone. Even when they are inside the chookhouse, she is obsessed with them, wanting to get in, and spends all her time focused on them. When they are out of the cage on the verandah, she constantly bullies them to the point where feathers are flying, and the chicks retire to the chookhouse, which we have cut a very small entrance into to stop her getting in there - she will follow them into the roosting area and is pecking at them and going for them all of the time.
Each time we catch her doing this, we lock her up in the dog cage, which is where the big chicks roost. It is the only way we can get the little chicks to come out of their house. We have had the little chicks (and the big chicks before them) on the verandah behind wire so that the flock could see them and get accustomed to them. The rest of the flock have, it is just Pest and to some degree the other 2, that have yet to accept the chicks at all.
Does anyone have any ideas on how I can break her from this obsessive behaviour? Today, it took less than 5 minutes with the little chicks being out before she was causing issues and back in the dog cage. She spent all of yesterday locked up, able to see but not get at the chicks.
