Chicken bald back

[natasha]

I thought I would share my experiences with introducing one chick with a mother hen to the other two adult hens, I will update as we go.

 

I had a Miss Pepperpot go broody in June and after three weeks of her sitting relentlessly on the nest, I separated her and gave her 2 bantam wyandotte hatching eggs to sit on. I did not want another large breed because of the limited space in the coop and the run. After 20 days one egg hatched. I waited 3 more days but the other egg did not hatch and the hen was not sitting on it any more.

 

The chick is now a month old and the mother started laying eggs two days ago however she still accepts the chick's company and since the chick still seems to be very needy I keep them together in a dog crate, next to the run with the adult hens.

 

Two days after hatching I started letting the mother hen and the chick out in the garden and around the run where the adult hens live. The adult hens seemed aggressive towards the chick during the first week, tried to peck on it through the wire when the chick came too close. In the second week they seemed to lose interest in the chick and when the chick was two weeks old I started letting all of the birds together in the garden, after I realised that the chick became very fast and could easily run and hide.

 

The hen that used to be at the bottom of the pecking order now chases and bullies the mother hen when near but the mother hen often sits then in submissive position instead of running away and obviously wants to be accepted. All the hens are ignoring the chick now, including the mother hen, but she seems to still want to sleep with the chick at night.

 

The next step I am planning is to put all the birds in the Eglu run under supervision over the weekend for a couple of hours and see whether the birds can be kept together without risking any serious injuries. This is because I want to give the mother hen more space as she is very active now, and the chick seems to be very anxious when away from the hens so I suppose I will have to somehow facilitate the process of introducing the chick when it is still fairly small. Also being a small breed amongst large ones may be a disadvantage, or advantage if it is easier to run and hide. The chick is very fast and active now and I would not be able to catch it so I trained it to wait for me to be picked up when I approach it.

 

I am hoping that the hens will continue ignoring the chick so I am more worried about the mother hen. If the weather is good, I am planning to build a small walk-in run attached to the Eglu run to give everybody more space but this is weather dependent, we are having quite heavy downpours here in London now and the forecast is not great!

 

If anybody has had similar experiences with introducing chicks to their flock please let me know how it went.

[sjp]

strictly speaking the chick shouldn't go in with the adults until it's at least 18 weeks old as it needs to be on chick feed until at least 6 weeks old and then growers until at least 18 weeks but also it wont be able to defend it's self until it's at least 15-18 weeks old and sadly it could be it's 'mother' that's the one that will be the aggressor towards it. and if it's a boy it could become a pest around the hens by 10 weeks old I find the chicks normally settle into their new 'home alone' life style after a couple of days.

the broody that can go either way she'll either slot back into the flock in her old place in the pecking order or she'll get knocked down to the bottom it depends on how high up the pecking order she was to start with and how much she's mellowed out will been broody. basically if no blood is draw leave them to sort it out themselves I've had broodies that have been desperate to go back to the flock at 4 -6 weeks after hatching and after 2 days have gone back to the chicks for another 6 weeks one went back until the chick was 18 weeks old personally I don't force the issue I let the broodies make the move back when their ready unless it's obvious that she's had enough with them but hasn't the brain cells to realise it's time to leave. should add that I free range my broodies with the mob from about 3 -5 days after the last chick hatches depending on the broody my main one normally want's out as soon as the last chick is up and running about but I know she can handle herself and her brood

[natasha]

Thank you sjp, definitely some good advice there and if I had at least one more chick I would not consider introducing them to the hens until much later. Unfortunately the chick seems to be very stressed when separated and keeps 'crying' loudly and the call in turn attracts cats and our local fox, so I thought I could at least see what the hens 'think' about the idea of the chick staying in the same run. I was wondering if anybody knows of an instance where hens accepted chicks in the flock without much fuss about it? I kept the chick close to the hens' run so I was hoping they would be perhaps a bit more tolerant.