{"id":4155,"date":"2013-05-11T10:07:23","date_gmt":"2013-05-11T10:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?p=4155"},"modified":"2013-05-11T10:13:17","modified_gmt":"2013-05-11T10:13:17","slug":"integration-before-bedtime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?p=4155","title":{"rendered":"Integration before bedtime"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night we decided to take the plunge and give the two sets of girls some time together before bedtime. We timed it to give them half an hour together then quarter of an hour to calm down on their own sides before going to bed.<\/p>\n

I opened the gate and sprinkled some corn around to encourage the bantys out and keep everyone occupied. I sat on the wooden block with the water spray in one hand and the camera in the other.<\/p>\n

At first they were all more interested in the corn but once the bantys came out Bluebell went for them pretty aggressively and I sprayed her with water. Amber, the smallest of the bantys, retreated to the coop on their side. At least she feels safe in her own coop. I was surprised that Honey was the bravest and came back out into the big girls side.<\/p>\n

The behaviour of the three big girls was different according to their place in the pecking order. Bluebell, bottom girl, just wanted to attack, getting in pecks where she could. Dotty who is middle girl was next to make her move and did it all with display. She stood up tall and raised her neck feathers (if only she knew how ridiculous she looked with half her neck feathers missing!) and tried to intimidate by show. Pepper who is top girl just walked straight up to Honey and froze like a statue giving her a long stare. Once the stare was broken she gave a quick peck.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A little corn to entice the bantys out<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Getting<\/a>

Getting closer with the distraction of the corn<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Honey<\/a>

Honey bravely walks past Bluebell and Dotty<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Bluebell<\/a>

Bluebell is soon in pursuit<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Pepper<\/a>

Pepper gives Honey a long stare<\/p><\/div>\n

Honey voiced her alarm and Amber came out of the coop to check on her. \u00a0I found it all very hard to watch and intervened with the spray but my husband said that I should leave them to it a bit as it’s natural and they need to do this. I am too soft though and find it really hard to see the aggression. I decided this was enough for tonight and as the bantys returned to their side I shut the gate.<\/p>\n

The big girls settled next to bantys on the other side of the wire and commenced to have a massive preening session. The bantys joined in with a bit of preening on their side. I am not sure if the preening was showmanship or because I had sprayed them with water, or perhaps a bit of both.<\/p>\n

\"Pepper<\/a>

Pepper preening and one of the bantys preening in the background<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Pepper<\/a>

Pepper preens while Bluebell keeps a close eye on the bantys<\/p><\/div>\n

\"All<\/a>

All the big girls preen<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Bluebell<\/a>

Bluebell can’t take her eyes off the bantys<\/p><\/div>\n

Bluebell continued to watch the bantys every move even when Pepper and Dotty were settling on the coop roof ready for bed. I think if it was just the bantys and the dominiques, they would very soon be ready to integrate without too much trouble but it’s Bluebell who is going to be the problem. Bottom girl is determined to hold her position and so my most docile girl has turned into the most aggressive. I think this is going to take some time but we will keep on with this in the evenings for now.<\/p>\n

Once the coop door started to close I lifted the big girls in and by then the bantys had gone into their coop so I closed the door. We have now got the first session behind us and will see what tomorrow brings. I guess it wasn’t too bad really!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night we decided to take the plunge and give the two sets of girls some time together before bedtime. We timed it to give them half an hour together then quarter of an hour to calm down on their … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4155"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4191,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4155\/revisions\/4191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}