Prior to today, we had been housing our newest addition of heritage breed chickens, Delaware's, 2 hens and 1 rooster (our very first rooster...ever) in our winter coop and run. And our existing flock of 6 heritage breed chickens have been free ranging and housed in a separate coop inside the pastures that we use in rotational grazing of our goats. These free ranging ladies are contained in over 2 acres with 4 foot high woven wire fencing as they joyfully wander the grounds all the live long day, scratching, pecking and chickening.
Side note: all of our animals get tucked into secure housing each evening, Good Night Moon.
Step 1. Google, ‘how to introduce new chickens into your flock?’ From there we then pieced together a plan that seemed right for us. For a few days in a row, and for a few hours each time, we placed our 4 month old Delaware’s into a large pet crate and that crate was then placed smack dab in the middle of free range territory, “Delaware's, meet The Flock, Flock, meet the Delaware’s.” That seemed to go pretty well, aside from one of our Salmon Favorelle's, who unbeknownst to us, is our most dominant hen. Who knew?
On the day we were to make flock integration official, we brought the goats into this pasture to continue the acclimation process. For those who may not know goats, they are creatures of habit who do NOT miss a beat when something is different, changed, new or askew. So, this pet crate full of chickens certainly falls under ‘something new and askew.’ After several attempts to distract, our cute and ever curious goats eventually settled.
Step 2. At dusk, under the cloak of darkness, place Delaware’s onto the roost in the coop with all the other sleepy chickens. Chickens are calm, and some can even assume a trance like state at night and it's much easier to move them at that time. Again, that went pretty well.
Step 3. Get up at the crack of dawn and let ALL the chickens out of same coop at same time. Gulp! We held our breath…….and straight away, Miss Favorelle again said, “Bring it, big boy!"
Soon, and much to our relief, by the end of this day chickens were forging together, mostly, and our Delaware's also quickly grew accustomed to our goats getting up close and personal.
They also shared a drink at the watering hole with Rainn, one of watchful barn cats. BTW....Best. Waterer. Ever. This Rent-a-Coop waterer allows you to swap out nipples for drinking cups for warmer day drinking, and of course, for sharing.
Note to self, we are gonna need a bigger waterer.
So, now who’s in charge? Pecking order is not just a saying, but a real thing. And by adding these new family members to the flock, we sure did upset the chicken cart.
Stay tuned as this all gets sorted out, and more.
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OH MY PECKING ORDER!!!! Great job staying with it and letting the ladies sort it out!