Adding 10 chickens to existing flock of only 6 what to do??

[Saladana]

Hi there, I have had chickens for the last eight months and loved it. I had built a huge coop and run I started off with 6 commercial layers, and planned on getting more. Little did I know how much work it is to add chickens to an existing flock. Anyways the opportunity arose for me to get ten more birds that are the same breed and age. I had to buy a minimum of ten. I have heard that its important to let the chickens get to know eachother before letting them go together, so I have all the new chickens in multiple large dog crates inside the coop.

When should i introduce them? I have heard its important to let them into the coop with the other chickens at night? Do I let half the chickens out at a time? I am worried the new ten chickens may bully the original six.

My other dillema is that today I noticed one of the chickens has bullied the hen it was with in the dog crate so much so that its gouged its eye, and completely pecked all its neck feathers off!! :S I seperated both chickens so they can be alone in crates. I am now wondering if I should just get rid of the cruel chicken so it doesn't do this again, or maybe the other chickens will put it in its place?? And is there anything I should be doing for the chicken that is now featherless?

Sorry for such a long post, if anyone has any advice or experience I would love to hear!
Thank you.

 

[mamagardener]

I wouldn't even worry about putting them together. I would only keep them seperated at first for health reasons, just in case the new chickens had some disease to keep it from spreading to the other chickens.
If you have 2 large groups of chickens, I would just put them together and let them sort it into a new group. I would only worry if I had one large group and one very small group.

If they have enough room, they should be fine. If you free range at all that might be a good time to let them all get to know each other.