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

[shibby69]

Hi all, i'm new here and need a little bit of advice please

 

I have four chickens named opal, jet, cindy lou and martha may. A little background info might help to explain things...

 

I first got opal and jet the brahmas in mid October last year from a friend. Just before Christmas my OH's dads' friend found a little red chicken wandering around and took it in. He couldn't find any original owner and had meant to keep it to cook for Xmas dinner! In the end he couldn't bring himself to kill her, and gave her to my OH's dad, who refused point blank to do it and rang me to ask me to take her on. I did (i'm soft!), and her name is martha may whovier. I read in various places you can't really introduce one chicken to two others sucessfully, so i went to merrydale poultry farm and got a snowbell (cindy lou who).

 

Problem is, martha didn't like cindy, and the brahmas liked cindy but not martha! I ended up with four chickens across three pens for a while! Anyway, i'd been swapping them all over into each others pens, and feeding them near each other and free ranging them together ect for three weeks, and then we got this chunk of bad weather come along... The chickens didn't want to go out on the garden and i used this to my advantage and put the four of them together in the big 'proper' coop i've got. This was Monday. I kept checking them every 30 minutes and all went really well and the four lived perfectly fine together for a few days. However yesterday, there was a bit of confusion as to who'd let the chickens out of their inside nest box bit, and they ended up being let out into their run about 2 hours later than usual

 

When i did let them out, cindy (the youngest one) had been 'had'. Someone, i think it's likely to be martha, had bitten her comb, and made it bleed. It looked worse than it is at first and it's cleaned up and is just a little scab now, but i've been really worried that this means the introductions aren't going as well as i thought. Do you guys think this is anything to worry about, or more like just a little blip, so to speak? I don't want to seperate her from the others, for fear of them not accepting her back. This happened yesterday, and they've been alright together today, and were fine together last night. When we went out this morning we put cindy in a seperate coop just in case, as we weren't going to be there for a good couple of hours to check on them as often as we usually do.

 

Well done to anyone who made it to the end of my post, sorry it's so long, i didn't mean to ramble! And thankyou in advance for any advice

 

Kyra

[Olly]

I would have expected that as they've had a few weeks to get to know each other, although separated they should be ok going in together. You can expect a bit of squabbling, that's how they sort out the pecking order, but it shouldn't be too bad.

 

It may be just a one-off, and they were probably very fed up at being kept in bed so long! As you say it's scabbed over now, it's probably ok but do bear in mind that fresh blood will just attract more pecking, so if it's still bleeding you might need to remove Cindy until it's healed or cover it with purple spray to deter any mroe pecking.

 

I'd keep a close eye on things, if there is any more blood drawn then you may have to separate them for a bit longer, but you may find that they've sorted out the order of 'who's Queen' now. You say it was ok yesterday, so maybe this is just a blip.

 

I introduced one new chook at New Year, and she still hovers on the ladder or perches on the branch, because she gets mugged by the others if she gets too close, but she is holding her own and not being pecked, so I hope Cindy will, too.

[BeckyBoo]

Hi there, I tend to agree with Olly, if you've got any purple spray that might be good for the scab - disguises the red and is a mild disinfectant. They nearly always squabble a bit so hopefully that was them sorting themselves out. Lucky you with your Brahmas, I've wanted one for ages, sadly the one I hatched is a boy and (weather permitting) is going to his new home tomorrow or Sunday. They are stunning birds!

 

BeckyBoo

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Welcome to the forum, Kyra . Can't offer any advice, just wanted to say I hope your girls all get on OK soon!

[shibby69]

Thankyou for the advice (and the welcome!)

 

I've not heard of purple spray, is there any online shops i can order it from?

 

I think cindy is reluctant to argue back because she's young (not entirely sure how it works with chickens but i'm learning!) The type of coop they have is a wooden one, with a ladder leading to an inside nesting area with perches. There's a door on this that i usually shut, in addition to the run door. Do you think it would be an option to leave this open during the night? I've always shut it, i thought they might get cold if i left it open, but my mum suggested that if it's left open (run door still shut to they're still in a secure pen) then if there were any more situations like the other day, cindy could get out of the bigger girls' way. I should also add that the run is usually open from 7am every morning and they're allowed the whole garden all day every day until night time - they only ever get put in the run when we go out (and they've stayed together in the run during the bad weather without picking on cindy at all)

 

I've put a large cat box with straw in underneath the bigger coop, the girls often take it in turns to lay their eggs here if there's someone laying in the larger bed area (they don't seem to like laying at the same time lol, not sure if this is normal?) and cindy will often snuggle down in there when it starts to get towards the end of the day - the other three will go up into the inside area when it shows signs of getting dark and she'll go in her cat box - i don't know wether to let her go in that, or put her in the inside section with the other girls. i thought perhaps on one hand if she's sleeping away from them they're not exactly getting used to sharing a sleeping area, but on the other hand it does avoid them getting into arguments

 

I absoloutely adore having the chickens, i'm never tired of collecting the eggs and find them such wonderful pets to own but i never in a million years thought they'd be such moody madams!

 

thanks again

[One_Box]

Welcome to the forum

 

I think I would agree with the previous posts in that it was probably a "one off" due to the mix up with letting them out. I use a medicated powder for small wounds on the chooks which seems to work well, the important bit being prompt action to stop the bleeding. As your hen has not been attacked again I would be reluctant to remove her from the others as re-introducing her again will only cause more pecking as the order is established again. I think to a certain extent you have to grit your teeth and let them get on with it as long as no real damage is being done.

[BeckyBoo]

Just to say purple spray is gentian violet - you can get it from most animal type places, not sure about pet shops but where i get my chicken bedding from sells it!

 

BeckyBoo

[mostin]

You can usually buy purple spray from wherever you buy your chicken feed from. If not then google it, and you will find a seller on the internet.

 

Good luck, hope they carry on going ok with the intros after this blip.

 

OOps just crossed with with becky boo who was posting the same advice

[shibby69]

thanks everyone, i'll try to get hold of some for in the future - it sounds like it might be useful stuff to keep handy!

 

i'll have to get some pictures of them, i've got a couple of Opal and Jet but none really of martha or cindy, so i'll get some and post them up to show them off

[Snowy]

You can buy the gentian violet spray from Merrydale Poultry.

[likeastar--x]

when chickens are being introduced the most important thing is that they all have plenty of space, so they can go hide if they feel threatened. weve always had the concept (through our three introductions) to just chuck them in and let them get on with it, and weve never had a problem. they get pecked a bit, but normally they just peck and walk off or run away, and eventually it dies down. i think it was probably just a blip, as others have said, because they were in a small space for those 2 hours.

 

 

hope it all works out for you

[mrsallen08]

weve always had the concept (through our three introductions) to just chuck them in and let them get on with it, and weve never had a problem.

 

 

 

I must admit with all our hens we have done this, ex-batts as well. We have however always monitored them carefully and always have a 'spare bed' as back up but because we have such a large outdoor run there is always plenty of room for everyone!

 

 

I think you are over the worst shibby69 tbh and hopefully all will be fine now. You may have a bit more hen-pecking when the young hen grows up as if she is a larger bird she may 'mess up'the pecking order of the others!

Glad you are enjoying henkeeping!

[shibby69]

thanks all They've been ok today, they were out all day on the garden again, which gives them plenty of room Cindy stayed with the other three most of the time, she does still go off sometimes to do her own thing, but then so do the others sometimes! The only mishap that happened was when cindy was in their dustbath and martha wanted to use it, so she chased her out of it. I didn't intervene, "Ooops, word censored!"ody got hurt - but am i supposed to intervene or let them sort things like that out on their own?

 

 

sorry for so many questions! It also didn't occur to me that the pecking order might change when cindy gets older

[alih]

Leaving the door open is a good idea - they won't get cold as there are so many of them and it gives an escape route in the morning. Hope it all calms down.

[One_Box]

shibby69, don't worry too much although I know this is easier said than done

 

Don't intervene in these situations unless you feel some real damage is going to be done. The hens will sort themselves out in a little while although some chooks are liable to squabble more than others. (Oh's bantams are a classic case!).