Sooo much pooping

[mimi5]

So hi all and sorry to be asking your advice/ help again.....but still on that steep learning curve!!! Milly (sliver partridge pekin) has started laying, left her chicks and gone back in the cube with Monty the cockerel. She has always been a bit of a madam and certainly was as a a broody!!!(drew blood from me more than once! ) I thought she'd be happy back in the run etc but all she does is create noise, strut about and screech for no apparent reason!!!! She didn't use to be this noisy!!! I'm worried the neighbours will get fed up! (I know I am )

 

So is there anything I can do??? Will it settle down??? I do let them freerange when I'm home and try to vary what I put in the cube run for them. Also Molly will be joining them both shortly...I guess this will upset Milly again

 

Pekins really are characters!!!!!! Be interesting to see how my hen chicks develop!!

[dance in the dark]

How old are the chicks? If she hatched them and raised them for a couple of weeks she needs to stay with them until they are at least six weeks, she can even stay after then really as long as she is happy. It will start to become apparent if she is fed up with them (never offers them food before eating it herself, doesn't sit on them so tightly, or at all at night (mine is currently starting to get fed up with hers so instead of going under her they kind of snuggle up to her). I would suggest if she wasn't demonstrating any of these signs you may have removed her too early.

 

If the chicks are old enough to look after themselves, I would just give it a day or two and she will snap out of it, she has probably just forgotten what her life used to be like and got used to private quarters.

[mimi5]

Thanks the chicks are now 7 weeks old and fine without mum. She seem quieter today thankfully and Molly has laid her first egg since being broody!!! Her chicks will be 5 weeks old tomorrow.

 

So now a different question! Can I put all the 7 chicks together in the same coop with run?? There's 2 weeks difference in age between the 1st hatch and the 2nd. The boys will be going at some future point but I'm keeping the 3 girls

 

Many thanks again!!

[angeluk69]

Yes, its completely normal that Milly is noisy!!! It would be be extrememly abnormal for her to be anything but noisy, also expect mood swings, narkiness and general attitude mixed with face pulling and messy surroundings!!!

 

Oh sorry, I thought you were on about my daughter!!!

[Redwing]

The chicks should be fine all together, two weeks difference isnt much

[mimi5]

Thanks Redwing. Is it the same advice as for adults... pop them in together at bedtime?? Or would it be better to let them spend the day together freeranging etc?? Also should I wait one more week till the little ones are 6 wks?