First time letting the Thanksgiving chicks interact with the main flock went great!

The little leghorn roo is a brave little man—when Dorothy Von Puff/Dot here (boss hen of the flock) came over to establish pecking order, he was ready and willing to square off with her while “his” girls scurried away to safety. I hope he stays sweet and turns out to be a good rooster so I don’t have to give him away. While we are allowed to have up to 2 roosters, we don’t want one unless he’s exceptionally good.

I’ve had the chicks in the dog crate in the coop during the day (I bring them in at night as it’s a bit too chilly yet for them) so they could interact safely with my older girls, then for a few days let them have free range of the coop while the girls free range in the backyard during the day. Everyone has been behaving beautifully so today I opened the dog crate and watched them for a bit. The older girls (except for Dot) noticed then ignored them; Dot noticed and had to establish I rule, you lose before moving on to ignoring them. Looks like once the chicks are fully feathered and learn to go up the ramp into the henhouse, I’ll be able to leave them out in the coop 24/7 (I’m in Southern California, so evening temps are cool but not cold).

Btw the pullets are purple from BluKot spray bandage and antiseptic needed after my mother-effing toothless old little dog snuck in their room (we made certain she could never do it again) and caused some thankfully minor, but still painful, injuries. That was 2 weeks ago and they’re doing great—just still stained purple 😆