newbies scared of the old girls

[janeyo]

My 10 week old newbies and the 15 weeker (approx) that we got at the wekeend KNOW where they need to go to bed, ie in the coop, but are being chase dout by the older ones. (I know this cos I have a chickencam!) This means we are going down and putting them in onc eit's dark and then they settle ok in the coop.

I know after introducing newbies before it cna take a while for them all to get along and find their place so don't mind having to do this, but we are away next weekend for 3 nights and I am therefore a little anxious they 'get it' and or are allowed in before then as don't want them out all night. The run is fox predator proof as much as any can be, but even so...

Is there anything I can do to speed the acceptance process up?

The other issue is that w ehave an automatic feeder which they step on and get the food. It's homemade. The youngsters are a) not on heavy enough to open it yet, but that is no bad thing as they are on growers at the moment, BUT when i put some gtowers down in a bowl for them the old girls come over as soon as my back is turned and eat them all. I obviosly don't want them going without food for 4 days when we are away.

OH is at the moment adapting an old washing basket to try and make some kind of feed station that the little ones can get into and feed without the big ones fitting - no idea if this will work - I am worried about them!

[RichmondHens]

If they are on different feed they should really be in different pens until they can all have the same. It's impossible to feed two different lots of feed to birds within the same pen as you have found out. Can you not keep the youngsters separately, or at least separate part of the run off for them for a few weeks until they go on layers like the others? I know this won't help the bedtime issue but this would happen anyway even if they were all the same age. It's all part of settling in and establishing the pecking order and will sort itself out in the end.

[janeyo]

No that's not possible.
Today I have seen that the POL is heavy enough to open and feed on the layers pellets so that's fine.
The 2 littlies now have an adapted upside down washing basket with a hole big ebough for them to get in and their feed is in there. They are no heavy enough to open the main feeder and the big ones are not small enough to get inside the washing basket!
And they are all now drinking from the main drinker.

Now just need to make sure they all go to bed

[kathyd]

Hi Janeyo. Don't know if this will help your situation, but my 2 latest birds had the same problems at bedtime - not allowed inside - and even when I put them in they still got bullied and it got very hard to catch them and persuade them in in the end. However... the 2 nest boxes inside the coop aren't currently being used as nest boxes (they prefer cardboard boxes elsewhere), and I'd stapled black bin liners cut into strips across the opening of the internal boxes to offer some privacy and make them more available for the POLs when they start laying. In fact, the POLs discovered quite quickly that if they could lunge across the others and make it into the boxes, they got left alone (I lifted them in myself the first time). Things have moved on and improved since then, but it worked quite well for a while. So don't know if it's worth trying to screen off a small area for them in some way?

[janeyo]

Well the amazing news is that on night 3, the babies have found their way into the coop on their own for bed! They slept in the nest box first 2 nights, but tonight are under one of the perches - I did tell them they will get pooped on but it's a start!
The white one was not inside, but she was picked on a little more as she was on her own for an extra day with the oldies. She was put in the coop too and is also now asleep under the perch!

Getting there