Mean Girls

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unbaked pegga

unbaked pegga

Songster
9 Years
Nov 22, 2014
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Lebanon TN
I have 3 Orpington hens. About a month ago I got 2 Orpington pullets. The girls were not amused. I kept them in an extra large dog kennel. After a couple of weeks I let them out to see what would happen. There were some scary moments that I stopped with the garden hose. The pullets are terrified of the "mean girls". I am out here with them 90% of the time so I have let them be. More or less. The 3 hens stay together and the pullets stay together and do not intermingle. They free range so they don't have to be in each other's faces. Come bedtime, the hens go to the coop and the pullets go to the cage. Which is ok....for now. Of course as weather gets cooler it will have to change. Do you think they will work this out on their own?
 
That's very normal behavior. You have brought in intruders, the older hens instinct is to drive them out or kill them. Age of integration as well as size of the territory can drastically affect how easy or hard it goes. Make sure there's plenty of room to be adding more and don't push or rush it. The two groups will always be separate but eventually they will be a flock. You just have to give it time. Make sure your coop has multiple roosts as the younger ones won't be allowed next to the older ones for quite a while. Your hens are doing what comes naturally and being mean isn't something that chickens can conceptualize.
 
oldhenlikesdogs said:
That's very normal behavior. You have brought in intruders, the older hens instinct is to drive them out or kill them. Age of integration as well as size of the territory can drastically affect how easy or hard it goes. Make sure there's plenty of room to be adding more and don't push or rush it. The two groups will always be separate but eventually they will be a flock. You just have to give it time. Make sure your coop has multiple roosts as the younger ones won't be allowed next to the older ones for quite a while. Your hens are doing what comes naturally and being mean isn't something that chickens can conceptualize.
Click to expand...
Ditto Dat^^^^

How big is your coop in feet by feet?
Do you have other birds or just the 5?

I would suggest putting up a separate roost for the 2 newbies.

...and 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
 

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