Chickens not getting along!

Hi there! This is my first post & appreciate any help! We became chicken owners this spring and started small with 3 sex links. Shortly after bringing them home 1 passed away. My husband has been heartbroken ever since and we went this past week and brought home to new Easter Eggers who are about 16 weeks old. We assumed, incorrectly, that this would be an easy transition for all of them however our 2 red sex links are not you doing well with the others. We have separated them and have read a lot of suggestions as to what to do, I did however have questions about the vinegar method and introducing one older hen at a time and if this has worked? Thanks!!

Welcome! New younger birds will need a gentler transition to your older crankier sex links. Having a temporary fence between the two groups, and then free ranging them outside (lots more space) after a few days or more, will work better. It's too late to talk about isolating the new birds first, but they need a safe place to get acclimated for a while. Is your coop large enough? AT LEAST four or five sq. ft. per bird in the coop, and more space in the run? Two separated feed and water stations will help too, at least for a while. Mary

Never heard of the 'vinegar method'...pray, do tell what that is.
Integration takes time, space and patience.


Here's some notes I've taken on integration that I found to be very helpful.......
......take what applies or might help and ignore the rest.
See if any of them, or the links provided at the bottom, might offer some tips that will assist you in your situation:

Integration of new chickens into flock.

Consider medical quarantine:
BYC Medical Quarantine Article
Poultry Biosecurity
BYC 'medical quarantine' search

It's about territory and resources(space/food/water). Existing birds will almost always attack new ones.
Understanding chicken behaviors is essential to integrating new birds into your flock.

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact. Integrating new birds of equal size works best.

The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide out of line of sight and/or up and away from any bully birds.

In adjacent runs, spread scratch grains along the dividing mesh, best of mesh is just big enough for birds to stick their head thru, so they get used to eating together.

Another option, if possible, is to put all birds in a new coop and run, this takes the territoriality issues away.

For smaller chicks I used a large wire dog crate right in the coop for the smallers. I removed the crate door and put up a piece of wire fencing over the opening and bent up one corner just enough for the smallers to fit thru but the biggers could not. Feed and water inside the crate for the smallers. Make sure the smallers know how to get in and out of the crate opening before exposing them to the olders. this worked out great for me, by the time the crate was too small for the them to roost in there(about 3 weeks), they had pretty much integrated themselves to the olders. If you have too many smallers to fit in a crate you can partition off part of the coop with a wire wall and make the same openings for smallers escape.


Read up on integration..... BYC advanced search>titles only>integration
This is good place to start reading:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock