4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[CrazyDaizy]

Hi

A week ago our pair of chooks cilla and Daisy became just one as Daisy passed away. We decided to get some

Last friday we went to collect our two new chooks from merridale poultry farm. We got Snowflake and Amber home and Cilla hasn't taken to them. If she walks towards them they run off and there are frequent arguements . They have been together for 3 days now.

Is it normal for arguements to break out?

Also Amber can fly/jump particualrly well. She has one of her wings clipped, woulkd it make any difference if we clipped the other wing?

Thanks

xx

[Bootscooter Nell]

Hi,

 

Firstly, so sorry to hear about poor Daisy

 

I have very little experience but I think you may find that as you only had the two Cilla could be finding it very difficult to cope without Daisy and now that she has two newcomers into her little life she will undoubtably want to establish herself as top hen. With a bit of luck Snowflake and Amber will respect this and soon settle down. You may also have a bit of arguing between Snowflake and Amber as they establish who is next in line and bottom hen. Give it a couple of weeks and I'm sure they will get themselves sorted.

 

Amber looks like my Marj - dark brown to black feathers? Marj is my flyer too, I wonder if it has something to do with their genes. I actually thought she was going to fly with the pigeon that she was chasing out of the garden the other day. She loves to fly across the garden and jump up onto things like the garden table, my two tier plant pot and various other items. I'm just glad she hasn't jumped up onto our neighbours fence. Although I do not clip my girl's wings, I honestly think that even if I clipped both of Marj's I'm not altogether convinced it would make a blind bit of difference.

[Egluntyne]

Sorry to hear about Daisy.

 

It is perfectly normal for arguments to break out.

 

There is an article **here** about managing intros, which are far less traumatic if takenslowly.

[buffie]

If you clip both wings it will make 'lift off' easier You need to just have one wing clipped as this unbalances any flight

 

It all sounds perfectly normal, we all worry about this at first. If it's just squabbles for top hen no real harm done and best to just let the pecking order go ahead. Our ex batt Poppy decided one of our pekins had to know her place. Pulled head feathers and I got quite twitchy about it Anyway her feathers are growing back and it's getting quieter.

 

Birds will be birds

 

Good luck

 

Buffie x

[alih]

my intros took 3 weeks - the thread suggested by Egluntine is excellent and really helped me pace it right. the slower the better in my view

[CrazyDaizy]

Ok thanx folks, it does seem we have run before we have learnt to walk! Though we were told we could put the new arrivals in with our old chook inside the Eglu together at night right from the start. They seem fine doing this. Then just keep them separate but able to look at each other during the day.

 

They are all "free ranging" but the new girls keep their distance from Cilla the older chook. Sometimes she will tolerate them moving closer to her, then other times she takes one step in their direction or looks at them and they quickly move away.

 

This morning because it was pouring with rain I made the mistake of putting them all in the run together, and Cilla was really bullying them, so I took her out of the run and left them in there.

 

Hopefully they will all get along great together and do the usual things like dust bathing etc, all in the same place in harmony!

 

Please tell me this WILL happen soon!

[alih]

it will - I thought it would never happen but it sounds as though you are doing the right thing - 3 weeks it took mine, and now look at them!

 

[cordelia]

its taken 2 weeks for my two girls to take to their new pal...now thjey free range together, sleep together, and can tolerate each other in the eglu run

 

we had to seperate them , divide and conquer tactics, and now they are all together..