Chicken bald back

[gavclojak]

okey dokey... my ex colony girls were out free ranging with the big girls on Sunday and everything was fine, the odd peck but nothing I am worried about. I have, since then opened the divider and allowed the girls to mingle in each others area's and the oldies are very interested in the new girls area. they have fed together and pottered about and I give them an hour or so then put the newbies back in the safe house! I have done this for the last few days

 

Barbara is very sweet, she wants to be with them and they follow her about like a big momma, Alana is nonchalant but Betty is having none of them, she doesn't chase them but if they dare walk within a foot of her, you can actually see her give them evil's followed by a swift peck, having said that the new girls are very fast and agile but they are very wary of her...cleaver girls

 

I have about thirty gravity feeders(well 3) and several water vessels, plenty of perches and escape routes....

 

Shall I carry on like this for a few weeks and just slowly increase the time together, I hope they all end in the cube in a few weeks as having to clean out a rabbit hutch(temporary accommodation) after having a cube is heinous

 

Any advice will be gratefully received

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I had one oldie who always lunged at the new girls but, as you say, they're very quick and get away safely! If you've only been letting them mingle for a few days, I'd probably give it another week or so and it should be fine when you put them all together full time.

[dancing cloud]

I found hens very much set their own pace in integration and if yours are now all together and mingling with no violence, they're pretty much there

 

Having said that, I found my ex-batts did a lot of screaming and shouting at new girls when they first arrived, and were always quite accepting when it came to the actual mingle - though the old girls would usually sit together as a gang and not allow the newbies to join . Come the day the day the newbies were allowed to sit with them without being chased off, you knew they'd made it !

[gavclojak]

Thank you. its funny, Alana and betty sit together all the time and Barbara is the one who potters about and I get the feeling she wants to be with the mew girls, don't get me wrong, she has given them the odd dig, I think the bald bottoms are hard to resist but all in all she is pretty sweet.

 

I am allowing them to be together for longer periods each day and I am having a week off work in a couple of weeks so plan to get them all in the penthouse apartment (cube) at night that week, but I can supervise them during the day when I block access to the old ground floor bedsit (rabbit hutch)

pray form me!!

[mullethunter]

Good idea and good luck