Combining Flocks

I finished building my new coop finally! I am calling it Coopzilla because it's so big (at least compared to the old ones). In the old "compound", I had 17 birds. In the most recent acquisition, I had 24. They were in separate coops with separate runs since early January. They were neighbors, sharing a pallet wall so they could get used to each other. 

With Coopzilla, I figured it would be a perfect time to integrate the two flocks. It would be completely new to both flocks so there wouldn't be much territorial fighting. Just the normal pecking order stuff. 

I locked the 24 birds in their coop last night with the idea that we could carry the whole thing to the new location next to the yard and let them all out. My neighbor was kind enough to come over in the morning to carry the coop full o'chickens over. That sucker was heavy! I think I tweaked out my back a little. We got the old coop over to it's location, cut a hole in the fence for the door, attached the ramp, and opened the floodgates so to speak. Chickens were falling over each other to get out of that coop. It was pretty comical to watch. I threw some scratch (aka "chicken crack" on the ground to keep them occupied which worked perfectly. Now to get the others. 

Since the "compound" birds are not all self contained, moving them required a little more strategy. I brought the dog crate into the yard and threw some scratch in it. Most of the birds rushed the crate and stood at the doorway pecking away at the scratch. I nudged about 4 of them inside and closed the door. I was able to catch a few more and put them in as well. Again, my neighbor was on hand to help carry the crate full o'chickens over. We opened Coopzilla's yard door, stepped in and let the girls out. The rest of the birds were on to me when I cam back with an empty crate. One looked at me as if to say "hey, where did you take those other birds?". I tried the same method of put some scratch in the crate, but they weren't having it. I had my son close the door to the coop so they had to stay in the yard and then he and the neighbor's daughter helped me catch the birds one by one. I have to admit; I'm no pro at catching chickens, that's the neighbor girl, but we rounded the last of them into the crate and carried them to join the rest. Piece of cake. 

There was the typical fighting among birds. They were all in a new environment so there needed to be a pecking order, literally. It was funny to see Elvis try to take on one of the other roosters only to have the third come join in. I was curious to see how it would go between the roosters. Elvis has shown aggression in the past and the other two are about as cool as cucumbers. I have to admit, it was nice to see Elvis get a bit of his own medicine. They have SO much more room now. The newer flock was in such a small coop, they were pecking each other so much they were losing feathers towards their tails. This new yard is bigger that the other two yards combined. At 384 square feet, they have plenty of room to roam. The inside of the coop is 128 square feet, about 4 times what both coops were. Not to mention they can now roost way up high inside which they like to do since the coop is 8 feet high inside. 

I put a feeder and a couple waterers in the yard and a feeder inside and everybody is seeming to get along. I even got 3 eggs in the new nesting boxes, which I didn't expect. I thought the stress of the move and new "friends" would prevent any laying. Nice to be wrong this time. So they're getting along during the day. It will be interesting to see ho they do when it becomes dark and they all go in to roost. i suspect there may be some more jockeying for position. We'll see.  

UPDATE: Didn't hear much from the chickens last night as they all went in to roost. I checked on them after dark and most were on the roosting poles I set up. They filled them from the top down. Only a few could fit on the highest roost and it was full. They gradually filled the lower two poles. A few birds were in the community nesting box and 4 were in one of the other boxes. I set up a couple cinder block on end out in the yard with a 2x3 between them for them to sit on during the day (you can kinda see it in the background of the picture above). Barry White & 4 of his ladies were roosting there. It had to be cold for them. I think I will take that thing down and see where they go tonight.   

Whitebeard is clearly the dominant rooster of the 3. Barry White, true to his name is definitely the ladies' man. Poor Elvis is just the young punk kid trying to figure out where he fits. 

"Whitebeard"

"Barry White"