Eglu Cube Coop For Sale

[Dizzy-Deb]

Dont laugh as suppose this is a bit of an odd question but value the opinions of more experienced chicken owners as have only had a few months so all is still quite new.

 

I currently have 4 chickens, 2 of which are exbats and they are all warrens. Currently they live apart but do hope to get to live together in future. If successful at that I would like to have maybe two more, bringing my total to six max.

 

Hubby would like me to have two more exbats, so that would be more warrens.

 

I have a want to have a couple of different breeds, and if do that means the new girls would be different colour. Looking at that from a 'chickens' point of view would that make any new chickens that look different more of a target ? or doesnt it really matter and it just comes down to whether they will all get along.?

 

Sorry if its a really daft question but just wondered.

[Redwing]

As a rule no it doesnt make any difference

 

The things that will make a difference are size, age and strength

[Patricia W]

Interesting question. I have a mixture and they do tend to stick together according to colour and type, but not exclusively. So my ex-bats stick together but are happy to mix with the Polands and Aracaunas. They aren't yet very keen on the latest ex-bats so it will be interesting to see if they do join the social group of their sisters when eventually they integrate.

[Chicken deficient]

I have 2 of each of the colours of chicken that I keep. It shouldn't make a difference, but for some reason it seems that mine tend to hang out in their colour pairs more than they would through chance. Some of this can be explained by them being pairs of the same breed, but I have 6 Pekins, (2 black, 2 cuckoo, 2 partridge), that do the same, even though 4 are siblings.

Hope that makes some sense?!

[Chortle Chook]

Hmm, interesting I know that chickens have excellent eye sight and colour does seem to play more of a part than it would do for dogs, for instance. I have certainly noticed that my two black girls hang out together even though one is a Silkie and one a Frizzle. The little gold Silkie, by contrast, seems to be on her own quite a lot. My two white girls are, perhaps by accident, the most feisty even though one is much the smallest hen of them all.

[Janty]

Mine always used to hang out by type. The cochins were joined at the hip. So were the brahmas, etc. That's all calmed down now to some extent but I swear that the brahmas and cochins have meetings sometimes...it certainly looks like it.

 

 

[Chortle Chook]

That's the WI

[Plum]

I feel they partner up with the ones they arrive with.

[daxigirl]

Mine are all different breeds and colours but they tend to stick to black legs gang who were my first chooks and yellow legs gang, Lisa-Marie who is top bird will spend a tiny amount of time with the yellow legs when they're out in the garden.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Mine are all different colours and now that the pecking order has been sorted, they all hang out equally with each other .

[MaxBaz]

I've had three different batches of girls - the first four were 2 x Gingernuts and 2 x Pepperpots (2008), the second batch (March 2010) were 1 x Speckeldy; 2 x warrens and the third most recent batch (October 2010) are 2 x Sussex and 1 x Belle Blue.

 

They are definately colour prejudiced - the warrens/gingers get accepted a lot quicker, the darker ones (speckeldy and Belle Blue) take longer and forget the Sussexs joining into anything!!!

 

I have specifically gone for the more mature/biggest of each breed to try and balance it - but white is definately not as good a colour as ginger.....

 

However - we are getting there slowly, and I have taken it gently.

[helen1962]

i had an ex-bat a light sussex and a black rock. At first the black rock and light sussex stuck together but that was because they were chicks together but when the black rock finally stood up to my bossy ex-bat it was those two who stuck together and the fat light sussex was left on her own. My poor ex-bat passed away so now the black rock stays with the light sussex so in my garden colour does not make any difference it is just a matter of who is in with the "in crowd" at the time. I want my Light Sussex to raise her own chicks next year so we will see who pals up with who then!

[Woodcat]

My lot are very colourist and ageist. When i use to have three reds and various other colours the reds would run around in a gang together and ruled with a rod of iron. My two partridge pekins are inseparable and will wander round with my red pekin but are much closer to each other despite being the same age and brought up with the red. The others interchange a bit but on the whole the reds stick together as do the grayish girls and my poor white girl is most definitely left out alone.

 

However when i lost my head girl and second in command within a week of each other about 4 months ago it was very strange because they all reverted back to being friends with the ones they had arrived with rather than colour type and wouldn't speak to each other for about a week. They went from being one cohesive flock to being three completely separate groups who took over separate parts of the run and garden and even made a bid to sleep separately and then back to one flock and quickly as they had separated. There was no fighting or chasing they almost seemed to elect a new leader and form underneath her. I would swear there is a dissertation waiting to be written (if it hasn't already) in chicken behavior.

 

i don't know whether anyone else has this but my head girl has always been a red hen and i've had four who were or are head girl and owned 5 (one is currently about a year old and steadily rising up the pecking order) i wonder if it's the rhode island part of them. I've never had a chicken who was more aggressive to other animals than my RIR she's lovely with people but put a strange cat in the garden and you see why she's named after a warrior queen.

[Gelbel]

This is a really interesting thread - I am just incubating a dose of morehens disease that will be at it's peak when DH makes a proper WIR (the plan is done but need to be put into action). I was going to ask if there are 'easier' types of hybrids to introduce.

 

Funnily enough I was going to avoid anything white (I find them bad tempered) and go for two, daft gingers of some description. I love Black Rocks but think a total of four would not be healthy for Madge my Columbian Black Tail. My Black Rocks, Cissie and Ada, are sisters that are as thick as thieves - I'd love Madge to have some 'friends'.

[Egluntyne]

I think the only time you would run into difficulties would be if you were to introduce a solitary 'different coloured' hen in to a flock that were all the same. It would stand out and might have a hard time, but if there are mixtures of colours and breeds, they don't seem to care much. I find that they hang out more with the hens that they were raised with from chicks than with hens of the same breed.

[Space Chick]

I agree, I have a wide range of breeds and sizes that live in harmony from ex batts, LF Wyandotte, to bantams. I find that they tend to stick with the hens they arrived with as a general rule. They don't seem to realise that they all look different