A little help

tav1

Songster
9 Years
Nov 4, 2014
282
31
181
ct.
I picked up to Barred rocks yesterday and introduce them to three of my red hens. the night time went well now the morning time 3 reds are clucking up a storm and that's all I can hear. nothing out of the new birds I guess they have to adjust they just sound really ****** off
 
You just chucked the new birds in with the existing birds?
Of course the existing birds are tee'd off...there are intruders!!

That type of integration 'plan' rarely works out well....better go check for bloodshed.



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

It's about territory and resources(space/food/water). Existing birds will almost always attack new ones.
Understanding chicken behaviors is essential to integrating new birds into your flock.

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.

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.

In adjacent runs, spread scratch grains along the dividing mesh, best of mesh is just big enough for birds to stick their head thru, so they get used to eating together.

Another option, if possible, is to put all birds in a new coop and run, this takes the territoriality issues away.

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.

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
 
Yea I guess I did....but I have no other separation means. But I did separate them with a pc of plywood from an entrance way But they can see each other thru a screen. It's a lot quieter. It makes sense to use two feeding areas. Lots to learn
 
well i can say the new hens are adjusting since getting them last Saturday....3 reds and 2 new barred rocks , i guess the pecking order is in the works right now. for the first 2 day s they stayed high on the perch and didn't come down(do you blame them...lol) now there going in the coop and doing some light involvement. no eggs from them yet but i don't think i'll see any for awhile. and no blood shed at all the beeks on the reds where cut down some so there not pointy or sharp.
 

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