Adding chickens to flock

[NancyA]

Yesterday I put my four 3 1/2mo old silkies and Easter eggers in the coop with my 10 laying chickens. I had their cage beside the run for a bit and the 10 weren't that interested so I put them into the 8x 16 run together. They seem to just be chasing the smaller ones around, no real fights but I can see that the four are afraid- they stick together in corners most of the time....will this get better for them after a few days?

 

[ChickenGal1842]

They probably will be fine in a few days it usually takes some getting used to but my chickens have always been fine after about a week or sooner.

 

[chickens really]

Hello. Do you free range?..Many times they never fully become one flock. More like sub groups but tolerate each other.

 

[NancyA]

Hello. Do you free range?..Many times they never fully become one flock. More like sub groups but tolerate each other.

Can't free range due to our dog

 

[chickens really]

Can't free range due to our dog

Hmmm?..Lock up the Dog or chain it..Maybe train it?

 

[cmom]

Your run is quite small for the number of birds you have.

 

[meetthebubus]

this was my experience i just integrated recently, i kept them within sight but separate for more than a month, and there is still pecking order and separation although by their choice, as long as the newbies have a safe place to go and access to food and water, that's most important

 

[Mrs. K]

Make sure your run is not just one big open rectangle. I see many such ones on here. They do not allow the play out of chicken society, in which a younger bird agrees with the older bird, you are higher up, and I will leave this area. They cannot get out of sight, so the older bird thinks they are getting sassy, and chases them a bit harder to prove the point.

Get some pallets, old ladders, chairs, branches, roosts in your run. Objects in the run make it look more cluttered to you, but actually use the vertical space that is often under utilized. It allows birds to get under neath or on top of something, allows them to get out of sight for a bit, or away from each other.

They will be a sub flock until they begin laying, and then they will be one flock.

Mrs k

 

[NancyA]

Came home and one Wilkie has disappeared and the other Silkie has been pecked badly

 

[cmom]

Get some pallets, old ladders, chairs, branches, roosts in your run. Objects in the run make it look more cluttered to you, but actually use the vertical space that is often under utilized. It allows birds to get under neath or on top of something, allows them to get out of sight for a bit, or away from each other.

They will be a sub flock until they begin laying, and then they will be one flock.

Mrs k

Good advice...