It's way easier to add 5 or more than 1 or 2. Birds have their own social structure, think and behave way differently than other animals. We have to understand that they were not purposely being mean, but protecting the flock type behavior and re-establishing their pecking order. Please consider seeing them still as pets, just consider how bird's function as a flock, ok?
Cathryn rainbowsilkies MI
From: mjacobbe <mjacobbe@hotmail.com>
To: CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 9:20 AM
Subject: [CHICKENS-101] Chickens as Pets, Really?
Ever since my wife and I moved to our acreage after my retirement, I have been as happy as a hog in slop. Spent the summer tilling a large vegetable garden and building a coop and run (inside a large barn-shaped Morton building to house a small flock of chickens (dual purpose hens) which I had always dreamed of owning. My flock grew to five (each was just coming into laying age when I bought them from three different sources) and consisted of a Black Australorp, a Barred Plymouth Rock, a Buff Orpington, a Silver-Laced Wyandotte, and a Coronation Sussex. The pecking order was established rather quickly and painlessly and they have bonded together quite well. I named each bird and considered them as pets.
Last week I tried to add a 16 week old (the other birds are still under one year old) to the flock, and we named her Susie. We kept Susie isolated but in full view of the other birds for a few days before letting her into the coop and run. However, from the outset, each and every one of the existing flock made Susie's life pure hell.
She was hounded and pecked relentlessly, lost a considerable number of feathers from her neck and sides, and the only way I could make sure she was getting food and water was to I isolate her in the coop for an hour or so each afternoon. She sought refuge in the nesting boxes which was unacceptable because, in addition to depriving a box to a hen who needed to lay an egg, she was fouling up the boxes something fierce. She slept in a box at night across the coop from the five others who were on their perches. She brought on some of the attacks herself because whenever another hen came close to her, she screamed, ran and hid her head in a corner which seemed to bring out the aggression even in Sophie, my alpha hen, who pretty much left Susie alone otherwise.
Last night (after five days of this) I checked her and found that she had sustained a large wound to her left side. The wound, approximately 2.5" in diameter, was featherless and oozing blood. My wife and I cleaned the wound with hydrogen peroxide and treated it with Blue Kote. We then kept her isolated in a large kennel with food and water overnight. We have decided to return Susie to her breeder and fortunately, this great lady is willing to accept her back.
The point of this long story (sorry about that) is that I no longer consider my flock as pets. To me, they are now just egg layers who, because of their "Lord of the Flies" behavior toward Susie, will no longer be welcome when they reach the end of their productive egg laying days three or four years down the road. While we would never butcher and eat them ourselves, I bet it won't be too hard to find someone on Craigslist who wouldn't be so squeamish.
I've had different types of pets in my life but have never seen the cannibalistic behavior I witnessed during this last week. Pecking order be damned! Susie knew her place in the flock after her first few minutes in the coop/run so the sadistic behavior of the flock over the next few days was nothing I ever expected to see in a "pet".
BTW, even though my birds are confined to their indoor coop/run, they have approximately 12 square feet of total space per bird. I keep the barn heated (between 35-40 degrees), they receive a total of 14 hours of artificial/natural light per day, and they are fed and watered regularly. I also chose breeds which, according to everything I read, take to confinement very well.
When my current flock, who I had always planned to keep until they died naturally, gets to the age where they are no longer productive and are sold for meat, I intend to raise my next flock of dual purpose birds from chicks in the hope that the pecking order will established early and the birds will have time to grow together in harmony. Maybe then I'll be able to think of chickens as "pets" once more.
Last week I tried to add a 16 week old (the other birds are still under one year old) to the flock, and we named her Susie. We kept Susie isolated but in full view of the other birds for a few days before letting her into the coop and run. However, from the outset, each and every one of the existing flock made Susie's life pure hell.
She was hounded and pecked relentlessly, lost a considerable number of feathers from her neck and sides, and the only way I could make sure she was getting food and water was to I isolate her in the coop for an hour or so each afternoon. She sought refuge in the nesting boxes which was unacceptable because, in addition to depriving a box to a hen who needed to lay an egg, she was fouling up the boxes something fierce. She slept in a box at night across the coop from the five others who were on their perches. She brought on some of the attacks herself because whenever another hen came close to her, she screamed, ran and hid her head in a corner which seemed to bring out the aggression even in Sophie, my alpha hen, who pretty much left Susie alone otherwise.
Last night (after five days of this) I checked her and found that she had sustained a large wound to her left side. The wound, approximately 2.5" in diameter, was featherless and oozing blood. My wife and I cleaned the wound with hydrogen peroxide and treated it with Blue Kote. We then kept her isolated in a large kennel with food and water overnight. We have decided to return Susie to her breeder and fortunately, this great lady is willing to accept her back.
The point of this long story (sorry about that) is that I no longer consider my flock as pets. To me, they are now just egg layers who, because of their "Lord of the Flies" behavior toward Susie, will no longer be welcome when they reach the end of their productive egg laying days three or four years down the road. While we would never butcher and eat them ourselves, I bet it won't be too hard to find someone on Craigslist who wouldn't be so squeamish.
I've had different types of pets in my life but have never seen the cannibalistic behavior I witnessed during this last week. Pecking order be damned! Susie knew her place in the flock after her first few minutes in the coop/run so the sadistic behavior of the flock over the next few days was nothing I ever expected to see in a "pet".
BTW, even though my birds are confined to their indoor coop/run, they have approximately 12 square feet of total space per bird. I keep the barn heated (between 35-40 degrees), they receive a total of 14 hours of artificial/natural light per day, and they are fed and watered regularly. I also chose breeds which, according to everything I read, take to confinement very well.
When my current flock, who I had always planned to keep until they died naturally, gets to the age where they are no longer productive and are sold for meat, I intend to raise my next flock of dual purpose birds from chicks in the hope that the pecking order will established early and the birds will have time to grow together in harmony. Maybe then I'll be able to think of chickens as "pets" once more.
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