Violet looking ominous with the new pullets

We have two adult hens - one is no longer laying. That one, Violet came to us last spring with a hen companion who ended up dying mid winter. We found a young adult (Tilly) to be her companion. Violet let Tilly know in no uncertain terms that she was alpha. But she didn't draw blood. Now the two gals get along pretty well.

Today our two new 12-15 weeks old pullets arrived. They are mellow buff orpingtons who are currently residing in a dog crate within the run. Violet was NOT cool with it! She has been hissing! And trying to peck at the young'uns when they try to eat. And she's also pecking Tilly which she hasn't done in months!! Both older girls are squawking which I was told to expect. I am new at this chicken thing, but I understand they are establishing pecking order. The pullets do not seem terrified but I am afraid for them. I can keep a lookout periodically throughout the day.

My questions are - how long does it make sense to keep the pullets in the crate? How can I tell when it's "safe" to let them out? And this hissing! It's unnerving! Does the pullets' relatively small size automatically put them lower on the pecking order? If that changes over time as the pullets grow, could it be an uncomfortable situation?

It will be uncomfortable at first. How long you keep them in the crate depends on how long it takes for your hens to accept them. Things will be rough at first. I introduced a single pullet into my flock and it took about two months. You should have it easier having two pullets. Do you free range? For me, it helped to let them all free range together and then offer treats to bring them all together. You kind of have to give them time together each day and in time they will tolerate each other. If you can, try free ranging. And another trick that helped me was leaving the dog crate with the new birds in it inside the coop at night with your larger girls. Also, try letting them out in the run and see what happens. They may not be as violent as you expect. A little bit every day helps. They will also have it a bit easier as they get larger. Your situation is normal. Introduction usually does not happen overnight.

Thanks so much for your reply! We do let the girls out every now and then and watch them closely as we have a number of critters around here including muskrats, hawks, deer, coyotes. I was told that they need to know where "home" is before we let them out - maybe a week in the crate in the run! Is that in fact true? If so we will wait a week and then let them all out.

The crate will not fit into the coop. We are going to put the crate in the garage tonight as the run in not completely safe. I hate to separate them as I know they have to acclimate to one another. Tomorrow we are going to get hardware cloth to wrap around the dog crate so we can leave the crate in the run overnight.

I still have some questions - will their smaller size definitely put the pullets in a lower status in the packing order? Are there obvious signs of chickens "being ok" with the next step of letting the pullets out of the crate? When the pullets grow to full size will there be another adjustment as to pecking order?

Thanks so much for responding.

Yes, they should know where home is first. A week or two should be good. Of your chickens aren't in the run at night, and the crate wont fit in the run, then maybe it would be safer to leave it inside the garage.
The size will put them at a bit of a disadvantage, but that also depends on the personality of your hens. Some smaller birds can stand their ground, but because they are younger, they might be more meek compare to the older hens.
If your older hens stop hissing and start paying less attention to the pullets, then that would be a good sign to let them out. However, sometimes the only way to get them acclimated is to let them out together anyways.
When they become mature and grow out of the baby stage, they might want to challenge the older ones. However, the pecking order may very well stay the same. A dominant hen will want to stay dominant. It's actually probably more likely that the order will stay the same. All chickens are different and you may just have to wait and see what happens. Other people may have different experiences with their flocks as well.

Integration aggression is about territory and resources(food/water).
They need to live side by side, separated by wire, for more than a week...more like 2-3-4 weeks.

Pecking order is not about size, but it can be about age, maturity, 'personality' and territorial seniority.

Lots of space, multiple food/water stations, places to hide out of line of sight and/or up and away from aggressors all need to be provided.



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

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.

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.


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.

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

Thank you ALL for this info!!

YIKES!! I just found out the our pullets are NOT 12-15 weeks old as I expected when I ordered them, but 6 weeks old! Does the fact that they are much younger than what I originally posted make much difference in your advice? The young'uns seem pretty self possessed.


We will heed your advice and keep them in the dog crate for some time....

When you refer to "grit" are you talking about basic dirt? Right now the crate is padded with hay.