Last night was the much awaited “blending” of the red chickens and the Iowa Blue chickens. Those red chickens are mean and, I hate to say it, but I do not like them! If those had been the first chickens I got, I wouldn’t have chickens today. Remember Mean Chicken? Well, I have 10 mean chickens. They look like her, they act like her and they don’t like me one bit. Yesterday I was getting eggs. One of those mean chickens was in the coop . . not in the egg box! I reached in to get the eggs and she came running over there, grabbed my finger and drew blood. I’m thinking . . chicken stew!
Early yesterday morning we brought the 6 Iowa Blues (3 roosters and 3 hens) over and put them in the little holding pen right next to the red chickens’ run so they could “meet and greet” through the fence and get to know one another. Last night after the red chickens went into the coop for the night, we brought the 6 Iowa Blues over and put them in the coop. I’ve heard that if they wake up in the morning and there are new faces next to them, they kinda think “Where did you come from? I don’t remember you!” Ever had that happen? Oh . . no . . don’t tell any secrets! 🙂
Also in with the red chickens was one little bantam Old English Game rooster. He was having a hard time getting along with the other bantam roosters so we added him to the red chickens, who are all girls. We didn’t get him on purpose . . he was in an assortment that we got from Tractor Supply.
So . . we put them all in the coop together and, for a few minutes, there was total chaos. I wanted to get in the coop and keep peace but Vince said . . let them work it out, so we walked away and I said a little prayer that I hoped they would all be alive and not much blood in the coop when I got out there this morning.
Vince was up and outside first this morning so he let them out and apparently the little game rooster was determined to make sure the 3 Iowa Blue roosters didn’t invade HIS area.
Game Rooster
From what I read about the game roosters, they will not back down til either himself or his opponent is completely disabled! Not good . . so he’s now in chicken jail and he’s up for adoption!
Otherwise, the Iowa Blues and the red hens seem to be getting along just fine by this afternoon. We can’t keep 3 roosters with 13 hens so one, maybe two of the Iowa Blue roosters needs to find a new home.
Iowa Blue Chickens
The Iowa Blues are beautiful chickens and they’re my favorites. But . . we can’t keep 3 roosters with 13 hens!
Amy (NW WI) says
Thanks for sharing the story! I’ve been trying to creatively problem-solve our chicken groups too, so it’s nice to hear from others who are attempting the challenges of combining groups too.
Judy Laquidara says
From what I’ve read, it makes a huge amount of difference which breeds you’re dealing with. I think I could put anything in with my Dominique chickens and they wouldn’t fight. They are the most docile chickens ever! I’ve also learned that adding one or two chickens is harder than adding more. We have 10 red hens and when we’ve tried to add 1 or 2, they really dealt them some misery but when we stuck 6 in there, especially with 3 of them being roosters, the red hens backed down much faster. Also, if all the new ones you’re adding are a “family” and you’re not adding a bunch of chickens who have never met each other, that seems to help . . they seem to stick together. I was really surprised at how easy it was adding these two groups together.
Joyce says
It sounds like you have figured out one breed of chicken not to raise any more…
Judy Laquidara says
Yes, but we already knew that because we’re switching from hybrid to heritage breeds. The first chickens I had in MO were red stars and they were so friendly but these Texas girls are just not nice at all!
shirley says
I wish I was closer I would take him.