How long for chooks to settle down?

[Millymollymandy]

The new hens have been in with the old hens for a week now and there is no sign at all of them settling down. The oldies still chase the youngsters and the fighting and pecking at bedtime requires about half an hour of my time to referee .

I'm shutting the oldies in a separate run during the day to give the youngsters a break.

Everyone is off their food - the youngsters don't like layers pellets and just pick at some wheat. The oldies have gone off pellets and aren't even eating all the treats I give them, which is quite amazing as normally they are pigs like the ducks are!

Egg production is down too.

Help!

[Clara]

The only reference I can find is in "Starting with chickens" it says to avoid putting birds of different ages together unless absolutely necessary - though doesn´t say why. Odd.

Good luck, Cx

[flower]

for what it's worth... I've just introduced three bantam to two wicked old hybrids.
It's taken two weeks and all has settled down. The lavender aracauna isn't laying yet (but she may just be a bit young ) everyone is eating (the layers pellets) and all pecking has stopped.

here's what we found helpful.......

when we kept seperating the two groups we found there was less aggression if let the biguns out for a wander and put the littluns in a spare run on the grass (we used a fireguard ) then, put them all back in the main run at tea time where they preened and fought til bedtime.

we used old fridge and cooker racks and sticks to make perches, hidey holes and tunnels with food in.

we put food and water stations everywhere in the run.

we only put treats in at teatime...and then only ones with distracting value (cabbage on a stick, corn on the cob) so that they really had to eat their pellets (they reckon chooks eat 85% of diet in the early morning)

most importantly........the more we stayed away, the less they fought.
when we watched from the house we noted that the littluns kept their heads down and were mainly ignored, when we went out there all hell broke loose.
never intervene unless blood is drawn.
took me the whole first week to learn not to try and protect. as soon as I toddled off....things got better.

promise.

[paddy]

Just an idea...if you put animals in an open place where they can see each other 100% of the time then i think they would be bugging each other all day, where in a natural enviroment ther would be cover and places to hide etc so they would be pre-occupied with eating etc rather than fighting.

Maybe cover and perches etc.

I did hear of a man selling eggs from Chickens in trees, he said all his chickens lived in trees as they would have naturally and only came down to the ground to eat.

Just some ideas thats all.

[Millymollymandy]

I think I will have to be patient! I do watch them out of the window and the youngsters do get chased and the occasional peck. There's no really nasty stuff though, except at bedtime when whoever is next to a youngster keeps pecking, although the three oldies are pecking each other too - I think they are just generally grumpy!

I've got food and water outside and in but nobody wants to eat the layers pellets.

[flower]

all the good advice says to give them nothing but pellets untill they eat them.
I had a real problem with this approach, feeling that since they didn't choose to be my chooks (I chose them) it was intolerably cruel to starve them into eating food they hated.

however.....

eventually runny poohs as a result of their rich diet persuaded me to rethink and I (reluctantly) kept them in their run with no choice but pellets to eat.
It took over a week before they really started eating them greedily, but now I find that they really seem to love them!
I keep them in their run (with pellets) til lunchtime (when most of them have laid) and they come out to free range all afternoon.
They very often return to their run to stock up on the pellets so we prop the door open.

and remember....pellets attract less vermin than the mash which is very important!

[Shirley]

Agree with Flower here... if they aren't eating the layers pellets (or growers etc depending on the age) then just don't feed the treats.

I seem to recall reading something like this : if they eat the other stuff... corn etc, it stays in their crops for a wee while - during that time they actually can't eat the stuff that's good for them. Hence the reason for feeding corn only in the late afternoon.

~don't quote me on that though... I'm halfway through my second glass of red wine!!!

[Millymollymandy]

The older birds have been eating layers pellets for two years but they've suddenly gone off them - this was just before I got the new birds. They don't seem to have lost any weight though. I don't feed that much wheat or treats to them and they don't seem unduly concerned or hungry!

I'll just keep putting the pellets down and see what happens.

One of my new hens thinks I make a good roosting perch - jumped on my back the other night (and crapped down it ). I couldn't get her off for a while and then she decided my wrist would be a better perch!

I'm not getting much done in the garden with all these new birds to 'play' with!

[Millymollymandy]

They are all eating fine now although they won't use the hanging feeder any more but I can live with that. They seem to like the pellets that have been soaked in water (rain!) much more than dry.

As for settling down, 4 weeks now and no sign of any let up.

[Lord Azrael]

I did hear of a man selling eggs from Chickens in trees, he said all his chickens lived in trees as they would have naturally and only came down to the ground to eat.

As long as they don't lay in the trees too, can't imagine getting up there to collect the eggs, I don't like heights that much!

[fenwoman]

The new hens have been in with the old hens for a week now and there is no sign at all of them settling down. The oldies still chase the youngsters and the fighting and pecking at bedtime requires about half an hour of my time to referee .

I'm shutting the oldies in a separate run during the day to give the youngsters a break.

Everyone is off their food - the youngsters don't like layers pellets and just pick at some wheat. The oldies have gone off pellets and aren't even eating all the treats I give them, which is quite amazing as normally they are pigs like the ducks are!

Egg production is down too.

Help!

if it is possible, I find the easiest way is to allow them all to free range together during the day so that the bullied ones can get away if they need to. Make sure you have several feeders and drinkers about too so that everyone gets a chance. How many birds do you have and how much pen and house space?

[fenwoman]

Just an idea...if you put animals in an open place where they can see each other 100% of the time then i think they would be bugging each other all day, where in a natural enviroment ther would be cover and places to hide etc so they would be pre-occupied with eating etc rather than fighting.

Maybe cover and perches etc.

I did hear of a man selling eggs from Chickens in trees, he said all his chickens lived in trees as they would have naturally and only came down to the ground to eat.

Just some ideas thats all.

chickens in the wild don't live in trees, they live on the floor of jungle forests.

[fenwoman]

all the good advice says to give them nothing but pellets untill they eat them.
I had a real problem with this approach, feeling that since they didn't choose to be my chooks (I chose them) it was intolerably cruel to starve them into eating food they hated.

however.....

eventually runny poohs as a result of their rich diet persuaded me to rethink and I (reluctantly) kept them in their run with no choice but pellets to eat.
It took over a week before they really started eating them greedily, but now I find that they really seem to love them!
I keep them in their run (with pellets) til lunchtime (when most of them have laid) and they come out to free range all afternoon.
They very often return to their run to stock up on the pellets so we prop the door open.

and remember....pellets attract less vermin than the mash which is very important!

I sometimes wonder if it is clever marketing which makes people believe that a normal natural diet of grains and insects, is somehow deficient and man made extruded grain based pellets is 'better' for them.
Pellets are made from ground wheat, grass powder, soya meal with limestone flour added for calcium.
My birds get my own mix which is wheat, with added kibbled maize, flaked peas, linseed pellets or flax seed, limestone flour (bought in a 25kg sack for less than a fiver, a teaspoon of garlic powder, and a teaspoon od codliver oil all mixed in big buckets and placed in hoppers. They also range about outside in very large runs, catching flies etc, eating blosson and leaves which fall from the surrounding trees,worms and beetles when I go in and dig over the runs and of course either apples or cabbages chucked into the run daily. fertility is high and so is egg production.
Same or similar ingredients as pellets but more palatable to them and more 'natural'. Wheat is £3 per 25kg sack, pellets are £6.50 a 20kg sack. Do the maths.
IMHO the fact that a lot of chickens have to be starved into eating pellets, should tell you something.

[paddy]

[quote="fenwoman]
IMHO the fact that a lot of chickens have to be starved into eating pellets, should tell you something.[/quote]

Very Very Very true..........There are foods we all dislike but if starved we would eventually eat them and the same goes for animals

[Thomzo]

My birds get my own mix which is wheat, with added kibbled maize, flaked peas, linseed pellets or flax seed, limestone flour (bought in a 25kg sack for less than a fiver, a teaspoon of garlic powder, and a teaspoon od codliver oil all mixed in big buckets and placed in hoppers.

Hi Fenwoman
My ex-bats eat the mash quite happily and, so far, I've managed to keep it vermin free but I'm still interested in mixing my own as I feel it would be more "natural".

Can I please just check the ratios that you use? Is it one teaspoon of garlic to a whole bag of wheat etc? I don't want to put them at risk by overdoing it as I gather garlic thins the blood.

Cheers
Zoe