Introducing one 10 week old to three 14 week olds - Advice??

[blbgp]

We have one 10 week old pullet to introduce to three bonded pullets (two are 13 weeks, one is 14 weeks). We have the ten week old in a dog crate that the older chicks can see from the coop and plan to take this slow, but any advice?

We thought the older gals would be fine with it, since they took in a new one about a month ago with absolutely no issues, but when we tried this afternoon, they went right after the young one (jumped on her aggressively, harassed her until we separated them - looked pretty rough - nothing we have seen before in our quiet and until today, peaceful mini-flock).

 

[NellaBean]

Can you take one from the existing group of 3 and pair it up with your single? Basically making two sets of two? Once those two are "buddies", it will be a level playing field to integrate them with the other two.....

 

[cmom]

I agree with the previous post. There will probably be some pecking as they establish their pecking order but as long as there is no blood they should be ok. I put mine together when they were free ranging. I had lots of obstacles for the younger birds to run behind. Also I spread out plenty of treats for the birds to fixate on rather than each other. What may work for me may not necessarily work for you. You could try slipping them into the coop on the roost at night too. If you have one excessively aggressive bird maybe separate that one for a few days then try to reintegrate it.

 

[blbgp]

Thanks! We have one pullet (an RIW) who is more aggressive to the new one. She marches right up to the new one and jumps on her head/back to scratch/peck her roughly and won't let up (admittedly, we're new to this and worried parents, so we didn't give her a lot of time before we separated them).

Yesterday, we kept the RIW in the coop and let the new one and the RIR's free range together. The RIR's looked at the new one a few times but otherwise ignored her. We put the original three back in their coop last night and kept the new one in her dog crate, where everyone can see each other.

Should we just keep doing this for awhile? Or should we let the RIW out again and see what happens? Or maybe try putting the new one and the RIR's in the coop and put the RIW in the dog crate for a couple days?