Good god...in the first 4 hours of being chicken keepers 4 of them escaped!

[ladytophamhatt]

Trying to get a 17 month to stay where he was so one couldn't get down the side of the shed while I was in the run was quite something....

of course it was all DH's fault because he didn't lock the door after me so when they all charged up the run and bundled into teh door it flung open.

Probably not a good starting block.

I have only one question.
We have 6, if we added another one tomorrow would it be bullied?

I have no idea but I wanted to congratualte you on the chickens, I am just in the prcess of working out what I need to get some little egg makers of my own.
Tis very very exciting isn't it.

pmsl!

Adding another tomorrow should be fine - they won't have sorted out pecking order yet!

In the first week of having mine, I went out to put them to bed, before settling down to watch a prom concert on the TV. It was tipping down with rain, and they escaped - took me the WHOLE concert to get them back in the house!!!!

They are much better trained now!

Hope you're enjoying them!!!

We ended up getting 2 more, so have 8 now.

One of them is getting picked on really badly. She keeps hiding back in the house to avoid them all.

Is there any way I can smooth the relations between them all?
I've taken her out of th house and put her back in the run and shut the door but she just stands on teh top step of the ladder so they can't reach her....

I suppose its just going to be a case of her toughening up.

Shes a fiesty chicken though, I opened teh egg box yesterday to see where she was and she jumped straight out....twice! She waits by the door, wiating to make a dash for it when I put food in and she also jumped out of the hosue when I opened the lid to put the other new chicken in.

Have you got plenty of places for them to feed/drink? You need to make sure that the bullied chicken can get food and water. Make sure they don't draw blood in pecking - chickens are attracted to anything red, and once they draw blood it can make them cause serious injury.

Is there any one chicken being more of a bully than the others? Sometimes taking the bully out can be effective - if you've got a rabbit hutch or something you can use it as a 'sin bin'. Or you can just sit it out - as long as she is getting food and water she'll probably be fine. Try giving her a bit of corn in the evenings from your hand, so you know she's getting something.

What sorts of chickens have you got?

they are all hybrids.

We've got 2 black sussex, 1 white sussex, 1 bluehaze, 1 amber, 1 ranger(I think, brown with a white tail??), 1 rhoderock(although I think tehy made that name up because I can't seem to find it online), 1 like a ranger, but she called it something else....it's brown with a black tail.

Its the white tailed ranger that's getting picked on. I made sure shes getting food etc but ds3 going in the run and herding all teh others up the other end so she can eat and drink