Add in problem!!!

luvmychix2014

Chirping
5 Years
Aug 1, 2014
115
2
68
Hutchinson, Kansas
Hello, I have an established flock of 3 hens and 1 rooster. This summer we incubated eggs and now have 3 chicks that are 5 months old. All day long while they are free ranging they are always seperate...I feed them mainly out of a feeder...the older ones attack during feeding, attack in the coop at night, basically any chance they get they are all just mean and one of the chicks got severely injured last week and had to recover indoors. What can I do??? I noticed today 2 chicks have pecked combs and are bleeding...I am at a loss on what to do...please help!!!! I just want a happy bigger flock!!
 
Add another feeder and waterer, it spreads out the older ones so they can't bully the new ones as easily over them. There is always some jostling over roosts at night fall. Do you have enough roost space for them all?
 
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How much room, total, is available within the coop? How much roost space is there and is it one, long roost or a multi-level type roost?
As pointed out above, a second feed/water station is very helpful during an integration period - it allows the newbies an extra opportunity to access food and water without being chased away and makes it harder for the dominant bird(s) in the existing flock to control all of the food/water at once.
 
Integration with small flocks can be very tedious for all involved. How big is your coop? Enough space and room to get away is essential for the younger birds. Is there a boss hen in your older flock who seems to instigate the attacks? If so you might try separating the younger birds and adding in the most docile older bird, if things go ok then after a while add another older bird and so on until things settle down. It usually will get better, it just may take some time and effort on your part. Put some Blue Kote on those pecked combs so there is no visible blood. I'm surprised your rooster is putting up with the attacks. My mature roosters have always put a stop to older hens who want to bully his new young ladies!
 
The rooster is a part of the pecking, he is no better than the older hens!! I have one long roosting bar as my coop is smaller...how long will this go on its already been a couple weeks!
 
700

Here is the coop
 

Here is the coop

What are the actual dimensions of the coop itself (actual building) and the run(enclosed area)? Can you show a pic of the interior? Just from this photo it does not look like a very large area to house 7 birds and I suspect that is playing a large part in the issues you are experiencing.
 
That looks like a very small space to try to integrate new birds into, especially with only one roosting pole. I realize they are free ranging but they still have to go to roost at the end of the day. If the rooster is part of the problem rather then helping then this is definitely going to be a hard road. If it were me, I'd probably get the young birds their own coop to sleep in and just let them all free range during the day. I'd also make some windows in your coop for better light and ventilation.
 
700

Here is the coop


That is seems to be on the small size, for integration. There is always the stress of mixing various ages of birds.

In our case, we had added 11 new batch since May '15 with of our (10)1 year old birds. Partitioned the run and the coop, so they can see and interact with one another for 3 months. In September (young ones almost 6 months old) I took the partitions off, and there were still commotions and blood drawn, some pecking, it took another month to settle (almost 4 months been together) I still see the young ones group together from older ones and still see spars from time to time.

I got 3 water stations and 3 feeders to make sure all gets watered and fed, and 3 adjacent multi level roosting bars in the coop and run also built some pallet walls in the run for hiding places.
 
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