I have to say that I've not had any major problems introducing an adult bird (or birds) to my existing flock except once...a peacock who decided he needed to kill chickens. Needless to say, won't see him no more...he swims with the fishes.
I think age plays an important part and one should be cautious not to combine a bird, or birds, that differ too much in age. I swear, animals can smell the ones who are declining in age or are weaker and will proceed in hastening their death.
If you free range during the day, I think it's best to introduce new birds when the weather permits that and where they'll only be locked up together at night. More room is always better and in my experience, that seems to make for a smoother induction. BTW, adorable, sweet and seemingly innocuous duckies are the meanest little bastards of all and it can take some time to combine new ducks with resident ducks.
I've had this same problem with wildlife and must take care in how I introduce youngsters to each other to prevent injury and sometimes it's not possible even though they're the same species; it's not possible to combine them once they're older. There's always a pecking order with animals and sometimes, they're able to work it out and sometimes not.
Hey, let's face it, this occurs with humans too. What comes to mind are teenage gangs who roam city streets and kill each other over foolish turf wars or the 1% keeping the 99% down. Guess humans and animals are not all that different when it comes to who's at the top of the heap, eh?
Sue
WLR
CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com
No comments:
Post a Comment