Solitary chicken - need advice

[amandalou]

Hi, i was wondering if anyone could give me some advice please. We have 4 Miss Pepperpots which we bought in April and 2 crested cream legbars which we bought 5 weeks ago. As we have an eglu cube i was hopeing that they would all live together in perfect harmony ! but this is not the case. We have had to seperate the legbars as the others were constantly attacking them, if i try and integrate the legbars to the others they just jump up onto the fence and won't come down until the others have left the area. Also we can't get the legbars to sleep in their pen at nights, they sleep on a fence ! I was wondereing if anyone could give me some advice and tips please.Thank you

[Egluntyne]

Why not try the slow introduction method outlined **here** ?

 

It works very well.

[Christian]

viewtopic.php?f=42&t=25886

 

Here is a good guide to introductions.

 

All the best

 

edit - ok, so Egluntine can type faster than me

[Guest]

The Pepperpots are a confident breed whilst the legbars are probably very nervous, especially when young. As they have been attacked and traumatised, it's no longer a simple slow introduction. You need to help them to feel safe and confident before even trying reintroductions. Then I would suggest a VERY SLOW method rather than a slow one! If you can keep them all separate for a few weeks, that would be best. Then start slowly mixing them.

 

My Speckledy felt the need to roost 'up' when she first arrived, but quickly got used to the eglu. I have just got some Skylines, which I think must be Cream Legbar crosses as they look similar and lay blue eggs. They have terrible trouble with the eglu and have tried to roost on the Omlet netting. Even my shoulders or head have been tried. They both love to be 'up' somewhere. We have made a high roosting bar stool for them so that they can sit up on it in the day. The eglu is still on the floor though.

 

Good luck with the mixing. I hope your legbars will feel happy in their home very soon.