Add in problem!!!

[luvmychix2014]

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!!

 

[aart]

Might want to put some windows for light and some separate ventilation openings in that, and the new, coop.


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

 

[Den in Penn]

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?

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

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.

 

[cafarmgirl]

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!

 

[luvmychix2014]

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!

 

[luvmychix2014]

Here is the coop

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

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.

 

[cafarmgirl]

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.

 

[Spartan22]

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.