David Lock

Our neighbour has a largish rabbit run in his garden with 2 fat rabbits and has just bought 8 pullets which he keep separately in a tiny run.

Will there be a problem if he just sticks the pullets in with the rabbits?

Sorry about this townie question

David

Turbohot

Does pullet mean chickens? Well, one thing that could happen is that the rabbits will eat chickens or vice' versa. Another thing can be contrary i.e. fat rabbits and chicken may become mates, and lose their identity to be like the other kind.

I say that because I recently saw a baby horse running round and round like a lunatic with cow's calves. He thinks that he's a cow while his mother sits helplessly behind a tree. Cow's babies outnumber the baby horse, so I can understand why this is happening there. I think your next door's rabbits in minority will start behaving like the chickens in majority. More cluck-cluck on the way in rabbit accent for you.

Rescue Dude

iTrader: (11)

He may be trying to breed an army of rabbitchickens to take over the world!!!!

lordharding

iTrader: (1)

As long as the pullets are very young they should be ok but if they were older and street wise they would chase the rabbits who are pretty placid sort of creatures generally


Trouble with chickens I always found was as they die 3/4 years if your Lucky you can't introduce younger chickens to the pen as then there is world war three so best to replace them all together
Feeding time could be an issue though as rabbits tend to nibble all day and hens will steal teir food constantly

Cpt Jack Sparrow

iTrader: (14)

David Lock

Pullet = baby chicken

Foal = baby horse

Calf = baby cow

HTH

Great piccy. I'll let you know if this happens


Thanks - useful. Didn't know about mixing ages.


David

Turbohot

I only questioned about the term 'pullet'. I know the rest, Shakespeare.

Anyhow, I thought chicken means baby cockerel or a baby hen. Why baby is further baby-ised is a bit complicated. However, it's ok. I'll put up with it.

JonMc

iTrader: (51)

Why keep rabbits and chickens, they all taste like chicken anyway

Turbohot

I think I ate rabbit meat only once in my life. Not sure what it tasted like. We eat Welsh Rabbit quite often here in Wales, though. I did ultimately realise that it is the Welsh Rarebit, actually. I used to think that that poxy cheese on toast was a Welsh rabbit's derivative.

ScoobyWon't

<northern>
Pullet' other one
</northern>

Turbohot

I don't gerrit but hahaha anyroad.

dpb

Hope they don't look like this one. ?!

http://rkfdnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Rawr.jpg

Turbohot

That's a dentist rabbit.

Leslie

It is possible that the chickens. or some of them might feed the need to peck the rabbits. We used to see the chickens gang up on one partiicular bird and peck its backside until it bled. Bit unpleasnt of them and we never knew quite why.

The only answer was to put some kind of tarry substance on the pecked chicken's backside in the hope that the other chickens would not like its taste very much and would therefore stop doing the pecking. It sometimes worked!

If the chickens decided to have a go at the rabbits it might be a real problem.

Les

RobsyUK

iTrader: (2)

I don't think they should be together. You don't see it in a pet store.

David Lock

Yeah but you don't buy chickens/pullets in a pet store do you?

dl

Torquemada

Rabbits and chickens - I was half expecting a Rabbit to lose it and walk round a corner with a chicken hanging out of it's mouth in some kind of Watership Down-esque horrific manner but no, pretty tame really

Torquemada

I hear that's where David Attenborough gets his most naturalistic shots of animals going about their business together - hunkered down in a local Pets at Home

LSherratt

iTrader: (1)

Firstly a pullet is a word used to describe a young chicken that's at 'point-of-lay' usually around 16-18 weeks old. A baby chicken is called a chick

As they are young, I would say yes, give it a go and put the birds in with the rabbits and keep an eye on them for the first few weeks. What may happen is that the chickens will take a disliking to the rabbits and will start pecking their backs. If the chickens haven't been beak trimmed and you notice a lot of pecking and the rabbits starting to loose fur due to the damage from the beak, I would remove them immediately because their beaks are very sharp and will cause a lot of damage.

Monitor the animals and if you see the occasional pecking now and then, I wouldn't worry too much, especially if the birds have had their beaks trimmed. You will even see the occasional chicken fight where 2 (or sometimes more) chickens will square off to each other, they'll try to stand tall with raised neck feathers, and sort of jump and peck into each other.

This might surprise people, but chickens can be very nasty animals and will even turn on the scrawny smaller chickens in the flock; hence the term "pecking order." I've had a flock of 4,000 chickens all with intact beaks, and they started to cannibalise each other- a situation that no farmer wants to see. These days though, most poultry farms that keep large flocks of chickens (1,000+) will get the beaks trimmed when they are 1 day old at the hatchery.

Also, proper chicken feed and water should always been available. They will only eat the food when they are hungry.

Our chickens actually roam in the fields with sheep and the sheep actually give the chickens more confidence which causes them to roam out further. I've also seen rabbits dart across the fields and the chickens don't really bat an eye lid.

In my opinion, give it a go and see how they get on. If you see a lot of bullying/pecking on the rabbits, take the birds out because it won't get better.

RobsyUK

iTrader: (2)

Wyvale (or frosts) in Woburn ok I know it isn't a pet shop but other then the frozen section at Tesco I don't know where else to get them.

But I'm sure being in a small pen the chickens will peck them.

Turbohot

I thought chick meant pretty lady of your age, LSherratt?

English is a weird language. If Chicken is a grown up bird, and a chick is a baby chicken, then why is kitten a child cat?? A kitten should be called a kit, not a kitten. Anyway, doesn't matter. English language will remain weird forever.

ScoobyWon't

A chicken is the cooked hen. Like beef is a cooked cow, pork is cooked pig. There's an urban myth that the cooked words were taken from French kings who invaded England. The Frenchies would use their word, referring to the cooked item, whereas the English peasants who cooked it, would use the Anglo word.

That's why there isn't a word for cooked cat in French.




It's actually Chinese. #87, I believe.

dpb

Big ole birds a Jongwe

Dr Hu

We only have 2 chickens that roam the garden - suddenly one turned on the other after they had lived together for 18 months, and over a week or so, no matter what we did, the one terrorised the other pecking its bum until it was just a massive bloody hole - took it back to the friendly chicken dealer who "swapped" it for another one.... (say no more)

The new hen was much younger and there was WW3 whilst they sorted out the 'pecking order' the torture regime lasted about 2 weeks - but now they are as happy as pie again with each other.

I've *never* seen anything so vicious & unfeeling as a chicken - they are cruel, evil bastads!!

LSherratt

iTrader: (1)

That's why it's important to buy chickens with trimmed beaks if you can. Most small sellers don't bother.

Turbohot

Ok.

There shouldn't be any term for cooked cat because cats should never be cooked. Cats are Gods, end of. Karma is a b!tch, you know. That's all I have to say for Chinese for eating cats.


What do the French call cooked horse, then?

dpb

Viande de cheval.




You can't eat a cow in certain parts!

Turbohot

Oh, Aye. How can we forget about that scandale de la viande de cheval.

LVC

Findus ...... but that's only for the UK market

Turbohot