LondonChicken
Chirping
Hello. I hope someone can help because we are at wit's end.
About 8 weeks ago we bought two little chicks that are just beautiful. They will eventually lay brown eggs and we would honestly like to replace all of our leghorns with these. We have been trying to acclimate them into the 8 hen/2 rooster year-old flock by keeping them in a crate inside their pen. now for two weeks.
Every single time we let them out the WHOLE flock attacks them. I don't mean a little pecking order stuff, I mean absolute gang violence. Every single chicken and the two roosters start tearing them apart and eating their feathers. We barely have time to get them off of the two. Even after the two babies crumple up in a corner, they just keep trying to rip them apart.
They are ok now but I fear this will never be fixed. We have seen absolutely no improvement in their behavior towards them despite trying multiple times per day every single day.
I am not able to build additional fencing, etc right now and the thought of leaving them loose in there overnight and hoping they didn't get ripped apart before I got out there in the morning is unbearable.
So...we need to add to our flock (we need more eggs in the future!) and the best bet at this point seems to be to buy 9 more chicks and turn these 10 loose to free-range and fend for themselves.
Any advice? Thank you.
About 8 weeks ago we bought two little chicks that are just beautiful. They will eventually lay brown eggs and we would honestly like to replace all of our leghorns with these. We have been trying to acclimate them into the 8 hen/2 rooster year-old flock by keeping them in a crate inside their pen. now for two weeks.
Every single time we let them out the WHOLE flock attacks them. I don't mean a little pecking order stuff, I mean absolute gang violence. Every single chicken and the two roosters start tearing them apart and eating their feathers. We barely have time to get them off of the two. Even after the two babies crumple up in a corner, they just keep trying to rip them apart.
They are ok now but I fear this will never be fixed. We have seen absolutely no improvement in their behavior towards them despite trying multiple times per day every single day.
I am not able to build additional fencing, etc right now and the thought of leaving them loose in there overnight and hoping they didn't get ripped apart before I got out there in the morning is unbearable.
So...we need to add to our flock (we need more eggs in the future!) and the best bet at this point seems to be to buy 9 more chicks and turn these 10 loose to free-range and fend for themselves.
Any advice? Thank you.
