introducing new chickens to flock - Page 2

Mine is the one that says ''What breed is my rooster?PLEASE HELP!!!''....and i put a pic of him,go look and tell me what u think

sorry..my battery ran out and I had to do a few things. That poster is correct. I breed Easter Eggers

Ok,Now i need to get a easter egger hen than i can start breeding

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeniffer 

I have four older women who rule our hen house.  My new baby girls and one rooster are not allowed to go into the hen house at night.  They are staying outside and roosting there all night long.  I don't mind this arrangement now because it's summer.  Yet, I will have to integrate them at some point because of the winter and cold weather.  I do have a closing mechanism for the hen house to the outside.  I have tried unsuccessful to close "in" the babies.  The older hens make schreeching noises all night.  I realize they are not happy with their new roomates, yet,  how do I get the all to just BE in the same area??

Every time I've integrated a new batch of babies in with the olders - I first let them hang side by side for about a month - at 3 weeks - depending on outdoor temps - I let the babies be in a wired off area near the bigs and return them to the brooder after about an hour or so.  Then later I put the 4 week old babies from the brooder into an area in my 10x5 coop that I wire off and that becomes their new brooder.  That way they hear each other and can get used to the noises of the babies.  I also let the bigs out into the yard and lock them out of the run for a time so that the babies can run around and get used the yard too.  Then after a month I let everyone out into run while the bigs are in the yard and see how they are together.  Usually by that point the bigs hardly notice the littles.  I give plenty of hiding places for the littles and only intervene if blood is drawn or one is getting pummeled. 

They just need to get used to each other.  They'll stop the screeching after awhile.  The older hens just don't want to share - but they will learn to get along if given more opportunities to interact and get the pecking order in place.  In the yard you can feed them all treats at the same time - feed the olders first and then toss to the babies.  Make sure your autodoor closes late enough that everyone gets inside - eventually those babies will go in to roost (usually by week 8 or 9) unless they are closer to the wild breeds.