Added a new chicken to the flock, everyone hates her.

[eamoret]

I adopted a hen from a friend of mine a couple days ago, and the rest of my flock seems to despise her. Of course, she is quite a bit older than the rest. I think she is about a year old. The rest are between 12-20 weeks and are all bonded together well as I raised them as chicks together. We have 11 chickens total. When I first put her into the coop the younger ones pecked at her. I figured they'd do that and get over it. Now the hen is pecking at the rest of them and they all run to cower in a corner. If I let her out of the barn and into the pen, the other chickens come back into the barn. If I put her in the barn, they go back into the pen. NONE of my chickens can stand to be around her. Is it because of the age gap? Will they grow out of it?

Here's what I have..
2 Buff Brahmas
2 Dark Brahmas
1 Light Brahma
1 Buff Orpington
1 Dominique
1 Delaware
1 Silver Laced Wyandotte
1 Golden Laced Wyandotte
1 Red Sex Link (the new one)

 

[A.T. Hagan]

You have to understand the way chicken society works. Pecking order RULES. Everyone must find their place in it which is what your birds are establishing now. Since she is older than the rest (and larger?) it sounds like she's going to end up at the top with the rest beneath her. Confine them all in the same area for a week or so until they have settled it. Check on the periodically to be sure no one is being significantly injured otherwise let nature take its course.

 

[cmom]

I have found it is more difficult to introduce one new bird to an existing flock then introducing several new birds to an existing flock. Sometimes I put the newbie in a cage in with the rest of the flock for a few days so they can see but not touch to get used to each other.

 

[eamoret]

Good idea. They are free ranging, so it's giving them too much of an opportunity to be away from each other. I'll keep them all in the pen, close off the barn door and supplement with grasses for now. Thanks!

 

[eamoret]

Should I get a couple more to really mix things up?

 

[A.T. Hagan]

As Cmom notes one bird can be hard to integrate. The more you can add at the same time the more it disrupts the pecking order so that one individual doesn't get wailed on by the entire flock. In your case though it sounds like the newcomer is going to come out on top so you might just watch what is happening to see if she's going to need some relief.

I recently doubled the size of my fixed yard flock when I moved birds out of two layer tractors to make room for new pullets. The birds I moved in were younger and less aggressive than the older birds which would ordinarily be pretty hard on them if there had only been a few of them versus the entirety of an older, established flock. In this case however I added so many birds all at the same time it blew the bottom out of the pecking order so the entire thing had to be resorted. Still lots and lots of fussing and squawking, but no one individual getting the stuffings beaten out of them.

 

[MoriahQuilts]

I've had the same experience. Added one hen last year and she is still hated by everyone. Added 7 six months ago and there was so much commotion, none were singled out and picked on. If I had known, I would have added three or four, not just one.