Adding a new chicken to a very small flock

[Trishkabob]

I hope you all can give me some feedback even though this is an older thread. I had 2 adults (now about 2 1/2 yrs) who had lost their third (and dominant) and we got 3 chicks in April (2 barred rocks and a partridge rock). The 3 have always been fine together and one of the older ones has been relatively gentle/unthreatened (a JG) but the other has been causing trouble since we introduced them all. We did it gradually and they are fine together all day but Harriet the trouble maker does stay just a bit away from the other 4 (even Eloise, with whom she was raised). It's at night that it's bad. Our henhouse is small (2'x5' x 4' high, plus 2 nestboxes) but they range free all day and have a big coop yard they like so it seemed fine when, at one time, we had 4. I was advised that once everyone was laying it would likely settle down but it hasn't. It has been about 6 weeks since then and in addition to the young ones being scared (and unable) to get into the henhouse, once they tough itmout and go in, Harriet pecks them such that they are roosting in the nestbox which is gross. One of the barred rocks dominates the other 2 younger ones but she has yet to challenge Harriet. Do we just have to build an addition to the henhouse with a bigger/second roost? (We tried a second roost but there was no way to get it far enough away from Harriet).
BTW, we tried removing Harriet from the others for a few nights before the young ones began to lay...made no difference. I love them and it is such a drag to hear the sauawking and wing beating in the evening, but mostly it is bad to have their poop in the nestbox. Help.....

 

[Ivytwilight]

I hope someone can help you. Our ladies have together for months now and my older hens still won't let the newer girls roost with them. We built another roost outside, in the run, the two newer girls use that one. They don't even go into the coop at night. The only time they are allowed in the coop is to lay and sometimes they even fight each other over that. We also have a very small coop with no room to put in another roost. It isn't a problem here, seeing as it doesn't really get cold most the year. I hope they will allow each other to be close once it becomes cold...a small hope.
Have you tried taking all the birds and putting them in a completely new situation together? I have heard that chickens bond when they are in a new environment. Perhaps putting them in a room, or a garage that is new to all of them for a couple days? Then after that put them all back and maybe they will be more tolerant of each other? I am sure it will be a loud experience to begin with, but it might work?
If not, maybe just give up and make a bigger coop, or get rid of the trouble maker altogether? I know I think of my chickens as pets and as much trouble as they give me I still find them enjoyable and would have a hard time giving one up.
Sorry, I couldn't be more helpful. I hope someone can!

 

[Ivytwilight]

Well, my little flock issues are no longer a problem...This morning I went out to give them their morning/ shutup treats and found nothing but piles of feathers in the run/ yard. A coyote or bobcat came into the yard last night, busted through our run door, and killed/ate all four my of lady birds. I don't know when we will next get chickens, but certainly not until the coop/run is redesigned with hardware cloth instead of chicken wire....and a reinforced frame. I am trying not to be too upset as my husband pointed out chickens are made for things to eat, but you get attached to the little buggers don't ya? I am shocked I didn't hear anything last night, as I usually hear every little sound they make out in the yard. We did have very windy weather with gusts up to 45 mph all night, so maybe that is the reason I didn't hear a thing. I hope everyone else's little flocks are doing well and continue to do well.

 

[MagsDeatrick]

Sorry to hear about the loss of your flock. I hope you are able to reconfigure a new coop soon. I've been reading your integration advice and thanks to it, my little flock is doing ok. The New Plymouth white rock (8 months) that we introduced yesterday to our two 18 month old RIRs is doing ok so far, yes there are scuffles and growls but they are letting her eat and drink and sulk in the coop and on top of it. We alternate lock down in the coop between the old girls and th new one and this time share gives each a break from the nonsense. No injuries, thank goodness, just bruised ego. I'm glad our new hen is quite a bit younger, it makes it easier and it is really only the hen who was previously on the bottom of the pecking order who causes altercation. At night we sneak the new, too, which I learned only by doing some research.

In El Paso we have similar concerns with coyotes etc, and wind, of course, but my girls have been spared so far. We have a tall rock wall around the coop and that helps for sure- it's nothing we built, it came with the house.

Good luck. I'm very sorry for the loss of your fluffy friends. They are great companions even if they are also food.

 

[Ivytwilight]

Thanks for the lovely thoughts! Call me naive, but I thought the 8 foot brick wall we have around our entire yard would have helped keep the coyotes out. I guess if anything is hungry enough they will find a way to jump over! I asked all our neighbors and no one heard a thing that night either. ( I warned them to bring their smaller dogs in at night.) My birds were always very quiet at night, but you think being eaten alive would have cause them to make some kind of sound...
On a more positive note I am glad all of our trials and errors with a small flock of chickens has helped someone out! I hope things continue to go well for you and your birds!

 

[MagsDeatrick]

Thanks for the lovely thoughts! Call me naive, but I thought the 8 foot brick wall we have around our entire yard would have helped keep the coyotes out. I guess if anything is hungry enough they will find a way to jump over! I asked all our neighbors and no one heard a thing that night either. ( I warned them to bring their smaller dogs in at night.) My birds were always very quiet at night, but you think being eaten alive would have cause them to make some kind of sound...
On a more positive note I am glad all of our trials and errors with a small flock of chickens has helped someone out! I hope things continue to go well for you and your birds!

Wow, that's crazy. We have a lot of vacant land around our home but no problems yet with coyotes in the neighborhood- I do worry about some of the aggressive dogs that I see, mostly escapees from people's yards and not strays. Our newbie is pretty well integrated. I would bring you my two crazy RIRs to replace your flock if I could- what steady layers.

 

[Hishigata]

Ivy - I am so sorry to hear about your girls. It is very hard to lose a hen, they are pets as well as egg makers. It took me a while to get new birds when an animal killed my first pair 5 years ago. I am surprised that a coyote was determined enough to scale a huge wall especially with high winds. It seems like an unusual event. On the upside, your birds had a wonderful life ranging around your yard and being pampered.

My girls are doing well but it has been very cold for Texas (a high of 30 yesterday). Nutmeg is the only one laying now that the days are so short. Pumpkin molted back in June-July and has not laid since. I am hoping she will start again in the spring. All are healthy if not happy about the cold rainy weather. I saw some adorable little chicks at the feed store last month and was tempted to buy one. I could name her Cinnamon and she could be the Christmas chicken!

 

[Ivytwilight]

Thank you for the kind thoughts. They became very loved pets. We are in the process now of building Chicken Coop 2.0 Less Death. We are picking up our new little chicks the 25th of January! They are from a breeder and will be straight run so we ordered 12, 3 Easter Eggers, 3 Silver Leghorns, 3 Spangled Russian Orloffs (super excited about these pretty little ones), and 3 French Black Copper Marans. I hope I get at least a pullet from each of the breeds. Cross your fingers and hope!


The new coop so far. I am so happy it is more than tall enough for me to walk around in ^.^. It is quite a bit larger than the last one and will have heavy duty wire overlapped with chicken wire and hardware cloth on the doors of the run, an enclosed coop within all that also covered in reused fencing we found in the desert behind our house someone had dumped, and more hardware cloth! I hope that will be enough to keep the coyotes out at night. We used our brick wall as two of the sides just for more protection. I hope to make the coop itself look like an old western shanty saloon (The Unruly Hen) with a cute little hitching post out front they can use as a perch. I plan to plant cactus around it eventually...We'll see once we get everything together. Thankfully we have a while before the little ones will be outside. We are using salvaged materials as much as possible and I tore down the old coop to reuse that wood too.
It was down to 17 degrees last winter and our girls didn't even stop laying. They tolerated the cold far more than they tolerated the heat.