[Ag-eq] Chickens

[Jody W Ianuzzi]

Oh thank you all for the chicken chock advice!

JODY
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!" Thomas Jefferson

On Jul 31, 2013, at 8:47 PM, "Susan Roe" <dogwoodfarm at verizon.net> wrote:

> 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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