Torrential rain flooding run

[cluckingmad]

oooh, well done FnF

 

Bumper bit for you then

I fear so Have resorted to using artifical nails glued on, I dont have any urge to chew them, but as soon as they come off the nibbling begins - perhaps I should soak my nails in anti-peck spray?!

[Plum]

ukadex would do it

[cluckingmad]

ewwwwwwwwwwwww !

[Plum]

A little update on the new girls.

 

Eider has been getting a lot more cheeky and confident with the older girls, she dives in for food with them rather than standing back and waiting for opportunities or using the other feeders, and the same with treats. Then yesterday she crouched for the first time - yipee no more cockeral fears (I hope ).

 

Mot mot now 32 weeks is still a baby in her behaviour I'm in no rush for her to grow up. Guess when she gets towards laying and mature she'll get more assertive. They have logs, perches and a mezzanine when she wants to keep out of the way.

 

It's lovely seeing them more of a flock. I'll post a picture if we ever get any sun. Eider and Motmot are growing tails now and even Pigeon's is starting to come back after a heavy moult. Grackle keeps going and laying through sun, gales and seasons. Take a rest girl.

[Chicken Shirl]

Been wondering how they were getting on. Thanks for the lovely update Plum. Hope the sun shines soon, so we can see how they have grown. x

[batcatz]

Well, let my lavender out today with the other 3 and she attacked Dotty after half an hour of being fine. She even pulled out some feathers. So I put her back in the run. Tried again half an hour later and this time Dotty pecked back. Rather scary, but I was ready to seperate them. Now the weather is getting better I hope I can get all four integrated! It's taken months.

[Patricia W]

Don't give up. It has taken me from July to February to integrate my two new ones with an established trio. It suddenly happened after I'd resigned myself to it never happening!

 

Tricia

[Plum]

It's probably good that Dotty pecked back, may make your lavender pause for thought next time.

Keep taking it slow. Pigeon still taps Motmot but luckily no feather pulling she just squeaks and runs off

[batcatz]

Thanks both of you. Yeah, Dotty nearly flattened her! I'll keep trying. I can't believe the lavender has become so evil. She is the newest hen so I didn't let her out of the run for ages as she was so small and sweet. I was worried Dotty the top hen would attack her. Little did I know. I think she is trying to be the top hen and needs to be put in her place. I hope I won't need bumper bits.

 

I decided to wait until she laid (Jan) so I could easily get her back in the run, but she doesn't even crouch and she hasn't calmed down at all. The good thing is she isn't at all flighty and easy to handle.

 

I'm glad I found this thread again and that you were all v successful apart from the odd pecking.

[Plum]

If it's any comfort Motmot still hasn't crouched even though she is laying. I tell a lie she crouches for Pigeon when she lands her a blow

[atsw]

Ypu're going to hate me for saying this, but I seem to have integrated my two new girls within 24hrs .

 

I got the new girls yesterday and kept them in a sectioned-off end of the WIR all day. At dusk, once the existing gang had put themselves to bed I popped them into the Blue Eglu with Fifi (our old red hen), having first moved Anna (the Buff Orp) upstairs to sleep with the Pekins. It was dark by then, so there was no trouble. The two new girls settled themselves down on the bars, Fifi was already settled in the nest box as always. All that was left was to shut the doors and wait till morning.

 

Fast-forward to 6:30am this morning. I opened the door of the Blue Eglu containing Fifi and the the new girls first - Fifi shot out as usual, the new girls took a minute or so, with Minstrel out first and Polo just behind after a gentle nudge from me. The three of them roamed around the WIR without any issues for a good 5 to 10 mins, so rather than putting the new girls in the isolation section, I let the other lot out of the top Eglu to join them.

 

Again, no problems, a couple of little pecks from Anna (top chook), but fine otherwise. The Pekins paid no attention to the new girls at all, although Biscuit has been quite loud today and all three spent the afternoon sulking - at one point they all retired to the top nest box at the same time!

 

So, after just 24hrs, the new girls seem to be happily co-existing with the existing gang. I've just been up to see where everyone is sleeping tonight and the two new girls have decided to sleep with the Pekins. They put themselves to bed all on their own . It's a bit crazy, there's six in the top Eglu and two on the ground floor, but four of the six are Pekins, so there's still loads of room.

 

Doors are shut now, so we'll see how we get on tomorrow .

 

Andrew

[batcatz]

LOL Plum

 

Wow, that is super quick Andrew. I am I was just about to say I've read introducing two new girls to one lonely girl is quite often quick, but then saw your pics and you have a few! Very lucky. Love all your girls too! I tried the run divide thing and lavender lunged at the bars to fight Dotty. How are they doing today?

 

I'm just about to let them all out again, but will be armed with a water sprayer. I'm spending the rest of the day in the garden steam cleaning the wooden coop and sorting out the veggie patch. Fun!

 

As soon as they fight I will seperate and put the lavender back in the run for half an hour, then try again.

 

Oh yeah... also Bianca occasionally pecks Hetty the silkie. They are fine 99% of the time though, but it's a bit scary. Not sure I would even put those together ina run yet. sigh.

[Plum]

You know what's wrong, she is jealous she hasn't got a name on your signature

[atsw]

I am I was just about to say I've read introducing two new girls to one lonely girl is quite often quick, but then saw your pics and you have a few! Very lucky. Love all your girls too! How are they doing today?

All went well. The odd skirmish, but nothing to worry about. Liquorish (my cockerel) is doing a great job as umpire. He's really taken to the two new girls (can't think why!), and on each occasion that Fifi (my very old girl) had a go at either of the new girls he gave her a solid peck in retaliation. Anna has given each girl a few pecks and feather pulls, but more just to shown them she's top chook rather than anything more sinister. There's been no dramatic charges.

 

The last time we did intro's, it was when Di and Anna arrived, and at that point we only had Fifi and she was extremely lonely having been on her own for around four months previously. She was so glad to have company again she accepted Di and Anna without any problems at all.

 

Andrew

[Egluntyne]

Ahhhh....you have a cockerel, that is why it has gone so seamlessly.

 

They don't tend to put up with any nonsense from their ladies.

 

Must be a massive relief for you all the same.

[batcatz]

Aha, if only I could have a cockerel. Well, I did have one once when Betty became a Dave, but he's now living with his own wives on a farm.

 

I don't know how to say this Plum, but I haven't decided on a name for Lavender yet! It was going to be Lucy lou when she was a sweet chicken, but she is such a little madame at the moment that I am not sure. Chuckie comes to mind.

 

I let all the chooks out yesterday afternoon. There were about 3 fights all started by lavender. Each time I put her back in the run she shouted like crazy for ages and she is really loud and croaky. Spoilt madame. Each time Dotty won the fight, but lavender hasn't backed down yet and even pecked Dotty through the bars when she was put back in the run. Dotty even kicked her over once and was about to jump on her.

 

It's interesting that Lavender has ignored/chatted to Hetty and is fine. This must be a fight to be number 1, but I'm sure she is number 2 in her current pair. I'm pretty sure she will be number 3 with Hetty at the bottom and Dotty at the top.

 

No damage has been done as I seperate them straight away! Well, maybe a couple of feathers missing.

 

I'll keep trying and update again when progress has been made.

[Plum]

Suppose you have tried the jet of water

[batcatz]

yeah, the jet of water worked when lavender pecked Dotty through the run wire. When I follow them around holding the sprayer all is fine. They start when I relax and go into the house for a second or when not looking so I have to run up the garden shouting "hey! No" and clapping to try to distract them then I quickly seperate them.

 

I'm sure it will work out eventually. Just about to try again.

 

Edit/update: Actually, it was better today. When I let them out Dotty immediately lunged at Lavender and pecked her on the head. Then after that Lavender stayed seperate from the group. There was calm when Dotty went off to lay an egg. When she left the coop she ignored lavender and Bianca who were both dust bathing under the coop... of all the places they went into the small coop when they had the whole garden. Dotty also ignored her when she stayed in and helped herself to food and water. There was another s"Ooops, word censored!" much later. I missed who started it, but lavender was again stamped on. Sounds worse than it is as she was totally unharmed.

 

So next stage is lavender should move away from Dotty i.e submit to the boss. I'm not sure if she can see well enough under her fluffy head.

 

I also decided she will be called Lucy. She sat on my lap for cuddles after each fight and seemed calmer again. I hope she has accepted she can't be the top hen.

[Florence]

Things seem to be going OK for us too,brought our two newbies home on Saturday,Edna the Welsummer and Marge the Colombine.When we introduced our two pekins we went the very slow method and they were in a small run inside our free ranging area ,a year later they are still there we never did get them in together and the big girls still pick on them to some extent and steal their food,on the whole though they tolerate each other but it took a long time.

 

This time OH was keen to try the breeders recommendation of just putting the new ones in with the other girls after dark,have to admit I was very sceptical however agreed to give it a whirl provided we set up an alternative if there were problems so..

During Saturday we put the new girls in the old GP run where they were eyeballed by the others ,after dark we posted them into the big girls house ,Edna the elder settled on the lowest roosting bar and Marge in the nesting box.

 

In the morning I went out at dawn all set to fish them out,all was quiet and I realised I would not be able to reach Edna and I didn't want to just take out Marge so I opened the pophole and put two lots of food and water out.Still no sound,I waited by our summer house from where I have a good view after about 40 mins there was quite a lot of squarking and clucking and then Hepsi and Clover emerged and went to feed ,I decided to let them out to free range and shut the run to give the new girls a chance to come down.

 

edna was down by mid morning and Marge by lunch time,they both went back up in the afternoon and Edna laid an egg .edna came back down straight away and Marge after an hour or so.Feeling brave we let them out for a hour before dark to free range and although they were a little wary of hepsi no real damage was done.

 

Bedtime was interesting but eventually the new girls went up the ladder (with no help from us),this time Edna in the nesting box and marge on the lowest rung both with their backs to the old girls but this morning they all came down together!I decided to let the old girls out but we did let them back in to lay in the mid morning, late afternoon they all were out together and apart from a few quite pecks no problems Edna in particular seems as if she has been here forever,I am more worried about Marge though as she is younger and is more nervous.

At dusk I went up expecting the whole process to be a bit drawn out but found Edna snuggled up between the two old girls and Marge just below them.

 

Early days i know and things could turn but so far this has been so much easier then the last time.

[batcatz]

That's great Florence. That's a good way of doing it. Is it still going well?

 

Welll, my update today is that Lucy Lavender submitted to Dotty and is no longer agressive.

 

It's still really 2 pairs, or 3 and Lucy who keeps her distance. I tried to eat a banana today, but the chickens pinched it. All 4 were together on the patio at this point. So, Lucy is slowly getting in there, but keeping her distance from Dotty. There was still a bit of violence, but I can see the progress now. I reckon the violence will gradually stop over the next few weeks.

 

I don't think chickens are stupid. They always wait until I'm not looking then fight. Also, Lucy waits till she's having a cuddle to poo on me. She always saves the weetabix type just for me. At one point after I popped into the house I came out to find one chicken on my chair, one standing on my laptop and one wrecking the strawberry plants.

[Plum]

See I told you it was because she hadn't got a name. What characters.

[Chicken Shirl]

 

I don't think chickens are stupid. They always wait until I'm not looking then fight. Also, Lucy waits till she's having a cuddle to poo on me. She always saves the weetabix type just for me. At one point after I popped into the house I came out to find one chicken on my chair, one standing on my laptop and one wrecking the strawberry plants.

 

Oh dear! that did make me laugh.

[LittleOwl]

Well, after bringing our 2 new 21 week old Columbines, Honey and Treacle, home on Easter Sunday, we think we may have successfully managed the integration......still keeping fingers crossed though!

 

I'd read tons on here about introducing new chooks before we got them. This is our first intro. We had set up this rudimentary temporary pen against the cube run, using some spare netting and poles, cable ties, and a sheet of pond netting as a "roof". Inside we placed a small puppy crate, and inside that a cat litter box as a bed, the type with a cover, and put some straw in there. We covered the puppy crate with a fire-pit cover to stop any rain and draughts. It's amazing what you can do with spare stuff from your garage that you think you'll never use!! I've put a picture here as it's a little hard to describe. There is 50m electrified fencing around the whole set-up too, just in case anyone thought this ramshackle pen was in the open air!!!

 

 

(By the way, this was taken this morning - Honey is on the steps, Treacle to the left, and Elizabeth - evil chicken as it turns out - at the front).

 

However, when we picked them up the breeder had told us to pop them in the cube at night with the others, so that they didn't get confused about where home was. We decided to play things by ear as we couldn't make our minds up between the two trains of thought! We popped them in the temporary pen during the day, and opened one side of it for a few minutes during the late afternoon while we were standing there. They came straight out, and some of the older girls chased them and scared them, but didn't savage them! It was constant though, and was mainly one chook, Elizabeth, and when this chasing got too much we popped them back in the pen. We still hadn't decided what to do that night, and ended up putting them in their own little house for the night - OH was a little worried about his new girls going in with the others - he's worse than me!!! I did some Omlet Forum reading that night and in this thread found some info that the intros can be a bit easier with a cockerel to sort it - I was reading Andrew's account - so we decided to face the next day with that knowledge

 

The next day Treacle came out as soon as I opened the puppy crate, but poor Honey stayed put for 90 minutes. I was really worried, and so let the others out of their cube run so she could see some activity, and when she saw them running past her door she came out. We did loads of supervised mixing together on Monday, and although there were a few “handbags at dawn” moments it was mainly chasing and trying to peck, rather than actual pecking. However, Rico the cockerel was brilliant, a real hero! He would put himself between the new girls and his oldies whenever there was trouble, and looked after them. Sometimes he would stand guard while they were eating and not let any of the others disturb them!

 

At dusk we closed the puppy crate door (I felt so bad as the newbies coudn’t get in and were puzzled ), and while the others went in the cube, the newbies tried to settle on the roof of their puppy crate. When all was quiet in the cube we went to pop the newbies in there too. They protested loudly at being moved, and Rico was very cross at us for upsetting them, but once we closed the door we listened for a while and after a few shuffles all went quiet.

 

Next morning we went earlier to open the door, at about 6, hoping to get there before they were fully awake and causing trouble, and we were so nervous! Anyway, the oldies came out, the newbies stayed in, and as OH had to go immediately to work and I had to go out an hour later, we opened the cube, took the newbies out and placed them in their temporary run. In the afternoon we let them all out together, and again there was a bit of chasing, but nothing that drew blood, and Rico took care of them again. They were more than happy to wander into the cube run and discovered the grub and glug. Treacle even negotiated the ladder up to the cube. So, last night they lay on top of the puppy crate again, but when nearly all the oldies had gone in the cube Treacle leapt off and took herself in there too! We waited for Honey to do the same, but she didn’t and was getting increasingly agitated on her own, so we went out to help. When she saw us she ran round there herself and made her own way in!!! She hates us!! This morning I let them all out together – both new girls weren’t even the last ones out, and there have been no fights. They are all roaming around in the electrified run with a few extra bowls of food and water. Treacle and Honey are still together while the others roam around in a flock, but that's to be expected of course.

 

Treacle is Rico’s new favourite (in fact he has already initiated her into ways of the world and corrupted her a few times ), but Honey is so nervy. I’m hoping she’ll come round soon. I was starting to ponder whether having a cockerel was a good idea, but I do think he’s helped us with this. We won't be leaving them together yet when we aren't here - when we go out we'll pop the newbies in their temporary pen for the next few days till we're sure all is fine.

[Florence]

Love the idea of the chickens and the lap top!Everything seems to be progressing OK at the moment.Marge the little colombine is definately bottom of the heap at the moment ,even the little pekins seem to be giving her the runaround but no blood or actual pecking just a bit of warning off.

 

Little Owl your colombines look much bigger than mine !

[LittleOwl]

Love the idea of the chickens and the lap top!Everything seems to be progressing OK at the moment.Marge the little colombine is definately bottom of the heap at the moment ,even the little pekins seem to be giving her the runaround but no blood or actual pecking just a bit of warning off.

 

Little Owl your colombines look much bigger than mine !

 

My two are 21 weeks apparetly, well closer to 22 weeks now I suppose. What about yours? I must say that when I saw them at the breeders there were maybe 10 - 12 who were apparently the same age. As well as the variety of colours, I did think there was a great variety in the sizes.