addin young hens

[chicken parm]

my young hens are 17 weeks old, raised from chicks. they are in my raising pen. I want to add them to the main pen which has 7 hens that are 1 1/2 yrs. old. the pen is bigger 10x20 with a nice amish built coop. I'm very afraid bad things will happen when I add them. planning on doing it at nite. would it be better to let them free range during the day together?

 

[tamlynn]

I don't know which would be better, but I'd want to be around when they were all fully awake in case one is being bullied excessively. Chances are since they have each other, they should be okay? How many young ones are you adding?

 

[Judy]

I've read about people doing it both ways. Are they close together, so they have been watching each other for a few weeks? You could put the new ones out to range then let the older ones out, so the new ones are already there.

 

[ERnoleGuy]

I had to introduce 3 older birds to my 6 younger ones and I was petrified from all of the horror stories I read on here. What I learned though: Don't sweat it. I did it at night (like a lot suggest) and once the sun was down and it was dark, they all were in the coop and none of them had any issues. The next day I made sure to let them out early when the sun first came up so they weren't all cooped up together and there was only a minimal amount of pecking, nothing I would even call fighting. Of course they will still have to establish their pecking order, but in my experience it wasn't anything bad at all. Just keep them busy with lots to do: fresh greens, scratch grains, flowers, treats, etc. And make sure you can keep good tabs on them for the first few days to see what happens. Best of luck!

 

[Kansaseq]

I recently introduced a youngish blue orp cockerel into my established flock. He lived in a large wire cage, inside the the run, for about two weeks. The other birds got used to seeing him, and 'interacting' with him through the bars, while he remained safe. When he finally got his freedom, some of the hens did some pecking, but interestingly, my roo left him alone. After a few days, he seems to be pretty much integrated. I've used this method before, and it works pretty well for me.

 

[chookchick]

If you can free-range, you have it made. Usually it is best to wait until the younger ones are 4 months old, so they won't get completely beat up. But I would try free-ranging them together and see what happens. You can keep them in separate coops when not free-ranging until you feel they are comfortable with one another. I had to do the "separate but visible" method for 3 weeks to keep them from fighting, as I cannot free-range.

 

[chicken parm]

thanks for all the imput. I'm leaning towards free ranging first, see how it goes for awhile then adding them in at nite. keeping them busy with treats during the day. hope all goes well.