Integration new additons: barrier or sneak 'em onto the roost in the dark?

[scrambled please]

I have one 10 month gold lace Wyandotte chicken left after a fox attack, she has been on her own now for about 3 weeks, 1st week she was injured but fortunately seems to have made a full recovery. I bought two 4 month old Mill fleurs and two 6 month old blue lace who have been living together in quarantine and am now ready to introduce them to the original (Victoria). As she is the original and is still in the main coop, would it be OK to just put the other 4 straight in with her and let them get on with it? There is plenty of room and 2 different roosts.

Sometimes you just have
to see what happens. I free range and I do let them see
each other before I let them go.

 

[Mosey2003]

I always sneak them onto the roost after dark. I really don't have room in the coop to make a special area for newbies. I always add at least two at a time, and always fully grown (4+ months). It's not ideal, but there's never been any bloodshed. They squabble for a few days, make ugly faces for a couple weeks, then everyone is pretty much settled.

 

[Deblett]

During the day I had the 4 new ones in same run but separated by some wire from Victoria, but this evening, I removed the barrier and let them mingle. To my surprise Victoria left the 7 months Blues alone, even happily ate with them and almost mothered the 2 younger fleurs, she did nip them once or twice just to them know she was queenie but otherwise seemed to herd them around and led them into the coop at dark and even went back outside when one of the younger ones went back out and encouraged her back in before I locked up, so so far success!!

 

[bobbi-j]

I have tried the "sneak 'em in at night" method. My chickens have always noticed. They're not the brightest creatures God put on this earth, but they're not so stupid that they won't notice that the flock has doubled. Your established flock has a pecking order. If your new flock has been together for any length of time, they also have a pecking order. Putting the two flocks together is going to upset them both. There will likely be squabbles no matter what method you use, just because adding new birds throws everyone off kilter. I think letting them get acquainted may help reduce those squabbles. I like Mrs. K's method if you can do it that way. It gives the new ones a chance to acclimate themselves a bit without older ones harassing them.

 

[My1stChickens]

Update: I put up some temporary wire panels and divided the coop. (It's about 120 sq feet so there's room to do so). Then I stapled snow barrier fencing to the wooden wall, worked it over top/underneath the roost bar, and carried it to the other wall. Attached the bottom to the wire panels. So now there's a barrier from the floor to about 6' up. The old hens would have their roosts of choice, the new girls the other roost plus the egg boxes. Purchased extra feeders, waterers to be sure I have enough for both sides, plus the pen outside the coop. Came back to survey my work and Hortense (one of my ornery older hens) was prancing around on the new girls side. Not sure how she managed it, but "maybe" the way I had the wire up to the one wall so I made adjustments. Caught all the new girls and piled them into a cage, and moved them to the hay barn to await dusk. Old girls came in and roosted on their side. Brought the new girls in one at a time and placed them on their roost. They talked quite a bit, and one tried to leap straight into the air and get up on an electric cord that's strung across the coop. That did not work very well for her. They seemed to want to look for something higher-- perhaps because they were placed on the roost rather than getting up their themselves. But at least they are in the coop.
Both sides of the coop have water with a preventative dose of Denagard, mixed with some apple juice and sugar. I plan to do this for 5 days, hopefully preventing any stress related outbreaks of respiratory stuff.

I'm not sure how I'll handle them in the morning. It's going to be cold but clear. I could let them all out together in the pen, with multiple food and water stations. Or, I could just let the old flock out, and leave the new girls in and get used to their new coop. After tomorrow, they will probably all be in the next 2 days, as we will be getting snow. But the coop is big enough to accommodate all, short term. After the two days, I can let them all out, either to figure things out in the full pen, or with a divider in place.

 

[C. Conner]

I have a large coop 8x10 with 12 hens (no roosters)with a good size chicken run. I have another smaller coop separated by a fence (with a chicken door) at the other end of my chicken run where my 7 pullets have been living for the last 12 weeks (they are now 18 weeks old). I just let these pullets in with my hens 4 days ago by opening up the chicken door. Transition was very smooth. Hens went to check out the smaller coop and pen and the pullets finally ventured over to the big pen. Just a little pecking order drama but not bad. At night they go to their separate roosts. I have 5 feeders and two water stations. In the next week I will put the pullets in with the hens coop area and nest boxes (at night) and close off the small coop. I did this last year with some pullets and it only took about 2 days to get them to go into the big coop by themselves.

 

[My1stChickens]

I have a large coop 8x10 with 12 hens (no roosters)with a good size chicken run. I have another smaller coop separated by a fence (with a chicken door) at the other end of my chicken run where my 7 pullets have been living for the last 12 weeks (they are now 18 weeks old). I just let these pullets in with my hens 4 days ago by opening up the chicken door. Transition was very smooth. Hens went to check out the smaller coop and pen and the pullets finally ventured over to the big pen. Just a little pecking order drama but not bad. At night they go to their separate roosts. I have 5 feeders and two water stations. In the next week I will put the pullets in with the hens coop area and nest boxes (at night) and close off the small coop. I did this last year with some pullets and it only took about 2 days to get them to go into the big coop by themselves.

that sounds like a really nice set up-- one the facilitates a prolonged "get acquainted" timeframe. I'm not surprised they do well!

 

[aart]

that sounds like a really nice set up-- one the facilitates a prolonged "get acquainted" timeframe. I'm not surprised they do well!

Yes...and lots of space!

 

[My1stChickens]

Dawn's first light.... and I was there plenty early "just in case". The new girls were little chatterboxes. At the first light, 4 of the 5 new girls were still up on the roost but one brave girl had come down even though there was not much light. Everyone was interested in eating, and things were pretty peaceful at first. Then there was a great show of "who's the bigger bad a$$ between Goldie and the barred rock hen. Puffed up their neck feathers, jumped at each other a few times, pretty equally matched in their determination to be the bigger hen. But they can't hurt each other through the fence, all they accomplished was getting me to move the water to away from the barrier.

It's cold and ugly today-- we should see a high of 40 but no sun, and there will be some wind. Once I warm up and recover from being up most of the night with a horse, I will look into a temporary barrier in the pen so they can all go out for a bit.

 

[aart]

I will look into a temporary barrier in the pen so they can all go out for a bit.

Post some pics of your setup?
Best of cLuck!