[Ag-eq] Chickens

[Susan Roe]

Well, you are going to have some hen pecking, to what degree, there is no 
way of telling until you put them together.  I'd try putting them together 
during the day and see what they do together before closing them up together 
at night.  They are going to establish their own pecking order because there 
has to be the big hen on the block.  She will actually act like the flocks 
rooster and will do everything except fertalize eggs.  LOL   They can even 
come up with their own sort of chortal crow which alerts the other hens to 
potential danger and they should come a running.  When I had three full 
flocks, only 2 had roosters.  The breeders thought I may have had two 
roosters in that inicial group, but they were to young to tell.  They 
figured those two were dominent over the others, so therefore, they had to 
be roosters.  Wrong, wrong, and double trouble wrong!  They were two very 
dominent pushy hens and we called them Lavern and Sherly.

Sometimes, a flock of just hens can get a little pushy and flighty.  These 
hens were just that and they were a mix of buff orfingtons and bard rocks. 
The big girls were both bard rocks.  They would get pushy around the inside 
feeder and water to the point you had to actually push them out of your way. 
A rooster will not allow this behavior because he will always let his 
dominent hens go first, then himself, then the lesser hens.  If anyone gets 
pushy, he or even the dominent hens will pop them with their wings.  Even 
though with a rooster I needed to always have something with me like a rake 
or my walking staf to keep between me and the rooster, I liked not being 
mobbed when I came in the coop to feed, less of a chance for them to skoot 
out the back door.

I wouldn't put them together 1 at a time, I believe they will be singled out 
more frequently.

Susan
dogwoodfarm at verizon.net
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jody W Ianuzzi" <jody at thewhitehats.com>
To: "Groups" <ag-eq at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 31, 2013 2:17 PM
Subject: [Ag-eq] Chickens


> Hi all
>
> We have 4 chickens. How do we introduce new chickens without upsetting the 
> flock?  Should we add one at a time?  How does the flock react to a new 
> member?
>
> JODY
> "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!" Thomas Jefferson
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