I remember years ago Martha Stewart had an episode where she was cooking something with eggs. It was her original show where she was standoffish and quite scary (the way I like her) not the newer Martha show where she was forced to act kind of human.
As she was running down the list of ingredients she got to the eggs and said, "Just go out to your coop and gather some fresh eggs from your chickens.". I laughed and laughed.
Fresh eggs from your chickens. From your coop. Right Martha. You idiot.
And then about 2 decades later, this happened to me.
I'm an idiot too.
This is my second flock of chicks, the Black Copper Marans, which I now have to somehow integrate with my original, older flock.
To integrate my flock a little bit faster and get them out of my shed, I decided to group everyone together but have them separated so my older hens can't attack my smaller chicks. Hens are vicious and could easily tear these smaller chicks apart. Literally. They will peck, scratch and gouge them until they're dead.
But I can't have them living in the shed anymore and the faster I get everyone used to each other the better. So last week I moved the chicks into the big girl coop. They no longer needed to be under the heat light because they have their adult feathers now to insulate them, plus it's warm(ish) out.
Cuddles, Walnut and Cheez Whiz had no idea what was coming. By the way, I totally photoshopped out Cuddles poopy bum so you didn't have to look at it. My chickens have poopy bums like everyone elses.
The first step in integration was to lock the bigger hens into the coop. That way I could release the smaller chicks into the outdoor run without anyone being able to attack anyone else.
The little ones took a look at the big hens and promptly ignored them and went about trying to eat straw.
The older flock were interested in these weird black things but didn't seem upset by them. They may not even recognize them as chickens since they're a completely different size and a completely different colour. They've only seen each other you see, and they're large and brownish/red.
Earlier I had put up a piece of hardware cloth to cut the size of the indoor run in half. That way the big hens would still have access to and from their roost in the "upstairs" as well as the nesting box that's up there. And the chicks would have their own safe room, in the back half of the lower run.
There's access and doors to the chicks portion so they get lots of light. I have a screen that fits in the space perfectly so they have natural light and an see outside all day. Plus I lock the big hens up once a day so I can let the little chicks out for a run.
While the big hens were still locked up I corralled the smaller Black Copper Marans into their new quarters. The big hens looked on.
Once the little ones were secure in their portion of the coop, I let the big hens out again. They ran/flew out in a flurry of feathers and ground to a halt in front of the chicks new coop.
The chicks managed to remain terrified at the back of their coop for a full 30 seconds.
Once the half minute of terror was over, they ran to the front of the cage to introduce themselves.
Nobody screamed, nobody squawked. Everyone was well mannered and pleasant.
I'll keep everyone like this for the next couple of weeks until the smaller chicks are big enough to defend themselves if they have to. Once I can tell everyone is getting along (as well as can be expected) I'll take down the hardware cloth that separates them. It went fine with the Berlin wall, so I imagine this should go fairly smoothly. Although it probably won't.
Then it'll be onto the next integration. Goats.
Just kidding.
Speaking of which, did you ever see the episode where Martha went out and got Goat's milk from her goat for making cheese? Just ran out and milked her goat. LOL. Milked her goat for fresh goat's milk.
Idiot.
Oh crap.
Kat
I have been known to run out and milk a goat to make cheese.
I have been known to run out and pick lavender to put in the cheese.
This happened yesterday.
Nancy Blue Moon
I hope they all decide to get along for your sake Karen..did you really get a goat..I remember the goats at the petting zoo in Marineland when we where visiting the falls..they tried to eat my sons t-shirt..on his body..I found that quite amusing..lol..
Shauna
Lost a chicken on Sunday:( We think it was a raccoon, and we think our dog saved the rest of the flock (I had seen a raccoon on the sidewalk in the middle of the afternoon earlier in the week. I am actually hoping it was a raccoon because the alternative is that it was our dog. But, she's never shown any aggression or even playfulness towards them and the eggs were eaten out of the nest box. And, the chicken didn't have any bite marks (our dog still has her sharp puppy teeth), just a broken neck. And, the rest of the chickens are skittish around the dog at all. Not sure if that means it wasn't her, or that chickens truly are stupid.
I've lost a chicken due to illness before, but never like this. It's harder like this. She's currently in the freezer. I don't know what to do with her to be honest. I usually bury, but don't want her dug up and feel terrible about just tossing her in the trash. But, I NEED to get her out of the freezer before someone thinks I'm truly a crazy chicken lady.
So, I need to get new chickens and I think I want to go with chicks this time. This is a good post to get me thinking how I will separate them once it's time to integrate them. Once again, your post is very timely for me.
Shauna
aren't skittish - the chickens aren't skittish around the dog. oy
Karen
Oh that's awful. Terrible! It's so sad to see them like that and that would definitely be shocking. I saw raccoon mud prints on the side of my coop a couple of weeks ago and I'm still worried about it. I'm very sorry you lost your chicken that way. I'm sure it was the raccoon if they eggs were tampered with. :( ~ karen
Pam'a
You might check with a local veterinarian to see if they'd dispose of the chicken for you. My dad always did.
Leah Laurent
For the love of all us city-folk who can't have chickens or goats, please, please, PLEASE get some goats. Preferably the fainters. Imagine the posts and videos you could do with the fainters!
kathy
It is fun to see what happens with these chicks and not have to do any of the work. The hen, I'll guess she's walnut, that is peering into the chicks home (they are terrified for 30 sec.) is one curvy lady. She struck a "put me on the cover" pose for that shot.
MindyK
Last week's episode of RadioLab (a fantastic science podcast) talks about the Galapagos Islands. Ships introduced goats to the islands hundreds of years ago. Everything was fine as long as the goats were separated from everything else by the terrain, but a few decades ago, they finally got brave (or terribly overcrowded) and spread out. And they ate everything. Absolutely everything. Putting Darwin's famous tortoises at serious risk. The islanders had to bring in hunters with helicopters and do really unfortunate things to thousands of goats to get the situation back in control. Now, I'm not saying that one backyard goat will devastate your neighborhood, ruin your ecosystem, and necessitate helicopter intervention, but why risk it?
Tricia
I can't wait to read the goat posts! ;)
Leslie
Getting chicks out of the brooder is always such a HUGE relief. They'll be faster than the big birds, so as long as there are places for them to run they would handle some group play time better than you might imagine.
Toni in Iowa
Round pens. Works for horses, dogs, and chickens. No corners to be cornered into. And strategically placed obstacles. But chickens can be so determined to kill the one they've singled out that nothing deters them. The gang overwhelms the victim.
Call Me Patty
Totally interesting. Wow ....having chickens is a lot of hard work. And you're so good at it.
JeannieB
The plastic drain pipe with the clean-out near the bottom, does it hold water for the chickens? How do you keep it clean?
I hope that the introduction between the elder hens and the new chicks proceeds well and that no one gets hurt. I never realized that chickens have a " mean" streak, but hey!, it's almost the same as introducing a new, young cat when you already have an older one in the house.
Melissa
My guess is that's her feeder. I just constructed a similar one for my turkey.
Patti
Great post, I was waiting patiently to see how the big girls would react! I would absolutely love to see you get one or two goats ... that would be as fun to watch as anything on netflix or hbo! Have you ever thought about getting a little farm with some acreage? You're already a farmer!
Carla
I have never liked Martha. Pre or post jail. Pretentious.
Pam'a
Taking Martha down a peg is a popular sport, and I get why. But I must admit, if I'd managed to cobble together a multi-million dollar empire doing all the things she does, so stylishly, so exquisitely, I'd be damned proud of myself too!
Electric D
The show Storage Wars had an episode where teeny tiny sunglasses were in one of the lockers. It turned out they were chicken sunglasses used to prevent the birds from attacking one another. The lenses apparently trick the birds vision. There were pics of the chickens wearing them.
Karen
Yup. They're literally rose coloured glasses. They stop chickens from spotting blood. That's what gets them into a frenzy .. blood. So if one pecks and draws a little blood, they're like piranhas. They start attacking the site of the blood. ~ karen!
Feral Turtle
Some great pictures. Thanks for editing poopy bum as I am eating breakfast! Just kidding.....I can eat a sub while watching a cow give birth....true story!
Maria
Everyone has told me that chickens are a gateway drug to goats. I am ignoring them. Have you seen the human sized poo that comes out of goat? Can't handle that. No thank you. Besides goats don't lay eggs and don't even give milk until the female has had a baby goat. No thank you.
My rooster, Cluck Norris, was hatched the same weekend as your biddies. I know he's a rooster because he tries to crow (hysterical) and tried to jump on the back of one of the other hens when she did the submissive squat. Now that Was Funny. Cluck is about half the size of the hen and I thought she was going to beat him to death before the mom, Aretha intervened and saved poor Cluck's life. I just love an optimistic rooster. Give him a ladder and he can go to town.
Good luck with the flock.
Goats are Not a gateway drug to cows, BTW.
Cyn
"Cluck Morris" love it!
Maria
I am waiting for Cluck Norris to grow into his Ambitions. He really wants a girl. He reminds me of that old song about the ant and the rubber tree. He has High Hopes.
Grammy
I also like that Cluck's mom is Aretha. My neighbor has a hen named Phyllis because she looks like Phyllis Diller. Good eggs.
Ev Wilcox
Did I miss a post? Are they all girls? Boys? Other? Inquiring minds want to know! Anyway, hope the actual "meet and greet" goes well. Thanks for the photo essay. Your pics are very crisp and color accurate! But a goat? Pushing the envelope!
Ruth
7th photo... counting from the bottom up... I'm sure that hen is peeing. Am I right? If not, what is it that translates as liquid in the photo?
One pygmy goat coming right up... the plot thickens. ;-D
Karen
No, she's not peeing, lol. It looks like some dried on poop (sorry) and a bit of straw to me. ~ karen!
Tigersmom
I'm in a house with a lot of things that poop (a man, a boy, 2 dogs, 2 frogs) so I very much appreciate your photo shopping the poop off chicken bums as my exposure to poop already exceeds any safe limit.
Nicole2
You know Karen, I went from reading maybe 20 blogs to reading just one. Yours. And this post proves I made a good choice. You are a funny, entertaining writer. Don't ever change. Unlike Martha. xx
Karen
Kay I feel a lot of pressure now Nicocle2. ~ karen!
Fran P.
Black is the new orange. Great photos.
Grammy
Great comment, Fran!
Fran
Thanks.