As most of you know, we incubated eggs for the first time back in May. The tiny chicks hatched between June 1^st and June 3^rd.

Those birds, each of which fit easily in the palms of our hands back then, grew quickly. Within a month, it took two hands to pick each one up. Toward the middle of July, they were fully feathered. They could run fast, and even FLY, as I learned after trying to set up a 4-foot fenced enclosure for them in the front yard. That was a fun day…

Based on some neighbors’ advice, we went ahead and integrated the chicks (now, officially “pullets”) into our main chicken enclosure with our remaining three hens (the others were killed by a predator and a neighbor’s dog over the past few months).

When I moved them into the main enclosure, the young birds were each about ¾ the size of the fully grown chickens. We had originally planned to keep everyone separated until the new birds were as big as the older hens.

Our neighbors told us that introducing the new birds into the hen yard now (2 weeks ago) was safe, and that the hens would actually be a little less aggressive toward smaller birds than they would toward a fully grown chicken. Establishing a “pecking order” is a real thing, and is a natural social element of chicken life. Chickens are always establishing dominance over each other, even though they stick together as a flock, and huddle together for safety at night.

Indeed, the older hens began chasing the young birds around the pen. Whenever I’d throw food down for the young ones, the three adult hens would run up, chasing them off to take first picks of the food on the ground. But, no one has been seriously hurt. The younger birds just run away from the hens, and the worst attack I’ve seen has simply been a stiff peck on the back. Currently, I keep two feeders full, each at opposite ends of the pen. Additionally, when I throw scratch on the ground, I’ll throw it into each corner of the rectangular pen, and then some in the middle so that there is no need for any fighting over the food.

The young birds are now two months old, and almost as large as the chickens. They’ve all been together now for two weeks. But, there is still a separation. The young birds all hang out together in one corner or another. The chickens do the same. There is still bullying going on, and none of the younger birds dare stand up for themselves (yet).

When we first placed the pullets in with the chickens, we rolled the entire “chicken condo” we were keeping them in right next to the full-sized chicken coop to give the young birds a familiar environment to stay in – or escape to. And, to this day, all seven of the pullets settle into the smaller “condo” at night, while the three hens sleep in the much roomier coop.

We’re now trying to figure out when the young birds will eventually decide to join the hens in the big coop at night. I discussed with Angela when we thought we should remove the “condo” to force them to have to go into the coop. Since the hens are still being somewhat tyrannical toward the little ones, I’m afraid of forcing them all into an enclosed coop. Establishing who gets to roost where is bound to cause some more physical altercations, and I don’t want the younger birds to be unable to run away from the resident velociraptors.

For anyone who has experience with this, when do pullets start standing up for themselves? Do they ever get to establish themselves on a higher rung in the pecking order? Based on some behaviors, we are pretty sure that we have a couple of cockerels (young roosters) among the youngsters. When do they decide that they aren’t going to take any more crap from these hens?? If you have advice, please go to the very bottom of this page, and leave a comment.

Again, there is no major abuse. No birds have been injured. But, I hate seeing all the birds failing to integrate together as a flock. I don’t like seeing the young birds have to keep running from the hens all day long, from sun-up to sun-down. Hopefully these birds will all eventually become a cohesive flock, and will all roost together in the coop.

More to come as the situation progresses…

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