re-settling the flock

[Gro-Bag]

I have 3 CLs, one went broody and raised 5 marans cheepers. They have all free-ranged together during the day since the cheepers were 3 weeks old, and sleep in separate coops at night. A couple of weeks ago Mum lost interest in the teenagers and went back to her old coop with her sisters at night, and the cheepers sleep in the old broody coop.

I have found a home for 4 marans teenagers which is fab, as I want to keep one with the CLs, and as they all hang out together every day I thought it wouldn't be an issue settling one in with them. But...the very one I had decided to keep, decided for herself to sleep with the CLs one night, and when she went upstairs to the roost they all 3 attacked her - including 'mum' and I had to get her out fast.

Now I'm wondering...will it be possible to settle her (remaining marans) in with the CL sisters when the other marans cheepers are gone? What's the best way? If she sleeps in the broody coop until fully grown/ fully accepted will she be horribly lonely sleeping alone, even if free ranging with the big girls during the day? Should I try the put-her-in-at-night trick, after they've already had that reaction (or would it be carnage) I have been vaguely thinking about getting them a bigger house - would it help to move CLs and this little one together into a bigger house, in a different part of the garden? Would the move be enough to shake up the order a bit and give her a chance to settle in?? Or get everyone together into a bigger house quick and then take the ones for rehoming out later...??? Any other ideas/ tips? the cheepers are 9 weeks old, and one of the boys is starting to crow!! so I don't want to keep them much longer...
)

[RichmondHens]

You could do any of the things you suggest. If you don't need the broody coop for anything else then if you leave it accessible she can decide where she sleeps. You may find when her siblings have gone she will naturally move towards sleeping with the others, as she already has done. Over time they will accept her but if she needs a refuge in the meantime then she can continue to go in the coop. Alternatively, you can do away with the coop now and get them all in the hen house together, and by the time the other marans are sold the CLs will be used to her. Moving to a different place in the garden will help too as it will shake up the older hens a bit and everyone will be on a new patch together.

Good luck with whatever you decide, there is always a bit of pecking and squabbling for a while and it looks tough on the little ones, but they do have to learn their place in the order. Having said that my smallest grower (indian game) is regularly picking fights with birds sooo much bigger than she is (and winning) - in fact I'm starting to think she may be a boy which may explain things.

[Gro-Bag]

Thanks - well I just shifted everything - EVERYTHING - feels like I've moved house! Dismantled greenhouse (poly-carb panels, so not as bad as it could be) to make it into cold frames in the Spring, moved the toms onto windowsills, moved masses of pots of oversized plants, wrestled with a massive tree that had grown roots through the pot and into the patio, wrestled with a huge half-dead cordeline that never recovered from the Narnia that was last winter, shifted about a thousand 'useful' pieces of wood, hundreds of empty or broken pots, and god knows what else.

I can't quite face shelling out on a bigger hen-house just yet...I keep thinking something will 'turn up' and save me a couple hundred quid...or that maybe I'll do something with all those useful bits of wood...and the current one isn't big enough for all 8, but I put the runs together where the greenhouse was, with a pop-hole between them so that they mix even more and can get into each other's spaces, and still out of each other's way. They all had a fab time together picking at the woodlice and slugs etc that were under things that I moved - a great bonding session for all concerned. Then tonight all the cheepers tried to go to bed with the big girls, who fended them off, til I put them tired and cheeping to their own bed. Now my patio garden looks twice the size it was, and strangely tidy and I'm off for vino collapso, bath and bed!! I'm still not sure how it will all go, but now I'm too cream crackered to worry about it, so that kind of worked ;-)

[Suechooks]

Blimey I feel tired just reading that Gro-Bag!

[Gro-Bag]

It was quite cathartic - veg plot next!!
And the little'uns and big 'uns all seem to be getting along nicely in their runs now as well as when free-ranging.

[Glutton4...]

It's amazing what a bit of distraction can do!