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Hi all. I am new to the chicken thing, with the way the economy is i have started a chicken coop, started a garden, and am trying to start a buisness. well.... my neighbors got me into chickens and raising different birds for food and eggs.. kinda a resupplying food source. so i went out built a 15x15 x5foot hi 1inch chicken wire pen for the chickens.. built a house in the middle for them and covered a corner for a breeding box , hang out area. i ended up getting 11 2-4 munth old chicks, a couple days later a neighbor gave me 2 3 week old chicks and 2 more chicks roughly 2 munths. a week goes by and the 2 baby chicks die a day apart.. i saw they got beet on some.. but they mostly stayed out of the way of the bigger birds. .i blew it off as dead loss.. something byond my knowledge.. well today I got a turkey chick.. prolly 2 munths old.. maby less.. I got it from a feed store. i released it in the coop and all at once the flock gangrushed the poor thing.. i snatched up the chick quickly after doing 2 laps around the coop chasing the flock and baby turkey.. looked kinda funny I would immagine. well now i have the baby turkey in with my quails. how are in a smaller pen inside my coop. I am hoping that the chickens will see that the chick is a turkey and leave him alone after a while.. my neighbor has quail, chickens and turkeys in the same coop. not alot of each but they are still in the same area and they dont fight .. granted his are older. anyone got any clues on how i can do this with out any real fighting? thanks for the help..
I am planning on getting a farm going with different eating and egg producing birds, so the 3 acres i have will end up with alot of inter connected coops and breeding areas. if ya got any ideas for that would love and heads ups you al can help me with. thanks a million.
I am planning on getting a farm going with different eating and egg producing birds, so the 3 acres i have will end up with alot of inter connected coops and breeding areas. if ya got any ideas for that would love and heads ups you al can help me with. thanks a million.
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Re: mixed coop
Wed, July 2, 2008 - 2:51 PMAll domestic poultry are social animals with a hierarchy, which is maintained through signals and behaviors. This means that there will always be in-groups and out-groups, with some animals getting picked on. The same self-segregation you see in a middle-school lunchroom happens in barnyards and chicken runs, and sometimes an animal will be pecked to death.
Do I understand you correctly that you have approximately thirteen birds in a 200-square-foot space? It make sense that a single odd duck (or turkey) would be picked on, and it might be a good idea to keep that bird visible but separate until it is as large or larger than the others. Chickens generally do not try to pick on things larger than them, even in groups.
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Re: mixed coop
Thu, July 3, 2008 - 12:55 PMi am planning on making the fenced in area bigger. kinda ran out of money but at the moment i have 13 chickens in a 15 foot by 15 foot by 5 foot tall coop with a 5foot x5foot stilt house in the middle aprox 2.5 feet tall for them to goto durring bad weather. mind you all these chickens are still kinda small. was told somewhere between november -january they should start laying. they are in their ugly multing stage growing their adult type feathers. they have alot of room to run around. as money comes in i am gong to add onto the pen. personally i want it bigger with the ability to segragate for breeding.
the hierarchy makes alot of sence. i have them separated but in the same coop so maby after a week or 2 i can let the turkey inand see what happens.. i have 4 different types of chickens also not sure if that makes a difference. -
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Re: mixed coop
Thu, July 3, 2008 - 3:04 PMI have found that social groups are more important than "race" in chickens, or such is my experience in introducing succesive small mixed flocks to larger flocks over the past three years. If there is space the newer (smaller) flock will generally stay at the periphery and not integrate for several weeks, if not months. It might be faster with less space, but space is important if the "bullying" bothers you.
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