Chicken bald back

[MillyJude]

Hi

 

We have two coops, a cube and a large wooden coop, together in a secure enclosure. The doors are left open at night so they can come out when it gets light and have breakfast, i then let them out into their meadow at about 8am,

 

We have 8 chickens in the cube, so its pretty snug in there, and 3 ex-batts in the other large coop.

 

We recently got two little skylines, who are now intergrated and so i have put their little wooden box into the enclosure too.

 

BUT, one of the skylines has started to put herself to bed in the cube too, when thats pretty full and the other one is pretty empty. I do want to get the skylines out of their temporary box but had obviously planned to put them in the half empty coop not the full cube.

 

So should i interfere? I could put both skylines in the other coop with the ex-batts and shut them in for a night or two? But given that all doors are open and they can go where they please should i leave them to it?

 

As an aside, the skylines are ace, they have mad little spiky topnots and they run around meeping like little roadrunners, no eggs yet but am pretty excited to see what colours we get.

[keyhole kate]

I would be inclined to leave them to it tbh I am pretty sure others have posted similar situations and that they chop and Change as it suits them there all getting along together that's the main thing

[Beantree]

They are going to get pretty hot in there in Summer MillyJude. We have this problem with some Orpingtons and we have been moving them now for over a year. Sometimes they remember and sometimes they don't. The hens are smart enough but they are drawn to the cock who can't remember where he is supposed to sleep from one day to the next. Before that we've never had a problem, with 4 coops to chose from they all went into the right one. But there was no cock with them.

 

The only certain way to get them into the right coop would be with two separate runs. But without a cockerel sending them into the wrong place it may simply be a case of moving them a few times until they get the correct coop imprinted. It may only be a matter of time before the other Skyline tries to squeeze into the cube anyway.

[MillyJude]

Well I have got involved tonight and moved the skylines to the brown coop, 5 mins of huffing and birking and its all settled down so will see what they do tomorrow.