CALNICK Posted July 1, 2008 Share Posted July 1, 2008 Hi We have only had our ladies since late Saturday and last night introduced a vorwerk to replace our young girl that died earlier in the day. Anyway the vorwerk has been pretty much in the hen house and this afternoon i picked her up and gave her some love then placed her back in the run. After a few minutes our gold lace wynndotte pecked at the vorwerk which flew into the house, is this behaviour natural, Seems that we are asking too many questions!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura & CTB Posted July 2, 2008 Share Posted July 2, 2008 Sounds like they're are just sorting out the pecking order which will have been disrupted by adding a new chook. Things will settle down, just keep an eye to make sure no-one is getting hurt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALNICK Posted July 2, 2008 Author Share Posted July 2, 2008 Unfortunately we have seperated the vorwerk from the other ladies as this morning more than one chicken had a go at her and this was preventing her from feeding. We have put the vorwerk into a rabbit run and placed this along side of the run contaning the other ladies and have given her water and feed. We will then put her in the hen house tonight. As we are very new to chooks (less than a week) are we doing the right thing. All help and advice gratefully recieved. Calnick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonnoe62 Posted July 7, 2008 Share Posted July 7, 2008 I have got 2 mature birds (Rhode Island Red and Mrs Pepperpot), both just over 15 months old. The Rhode Island has been persinstantly pecking Mrs P to the point where feather loss is an issue and she is now off her legs. I have seperated them permanently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted July 7, 2008 Share Posted July 7, 2008 Advice about introducing new hens **here** Put out several food and water stations so that no one goes hungry. They can only "man" two so at least three will be needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted July 7, 2008 Share Posted July 7, 2008 Calnick, it's not advised to just pitch newbies in with the others - please read the introductions thread that Egluntine has pointed you to - you need to plan ahead and have extra accommodation ready for any new hens. I am sorry that the poor wee thing has been subjected to this pecking. It would be best to let the first batch of hens settle in for a few months and establish their pecking order before you start to introduce any new stock. Can I recommend the FAQ section of this forum? It is an excellent repository of information and is best read before embarking on any projects. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gallina Posted July 7, 2008 Share Posted July 7, 2008 I think everyone needs to note how quickly hens settle down and get territorial. Last year, I thought I could easily introduce two babies to my previous pair of babies, as I had only had the latter for ten days and none of the four had quite reached point of lay, but I was quite wrong. As I had an Eglu and a Cube, I was able to change my plans and divide the hens up differently. I was very surprised at how murderous my relatively new hens were. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
