Adding new chickens to existing chickens

[rd200]

New here and to chickens. We want to get some chickens that are ready to lay soon. Ive been looking w/o much luck so far. I know this isn't really the "right" time of year since chicks are just starting now. I found a lady that has some Barred Rocks that are 2.5months old already. I think they would do good for us, wasn't the first breed on my list but none the less, I would like maybe 6 of them. She also has a Cream Legbar that is laying that she would sell me too. So my questions are......
1- Can I put the 1 laying hen & the non-layers all together?? (I don't think the layer is w/the younger birds at her house right now)
2- As time goes on, id either want to start raising some chicks now so that by end of Summer they are starting to lay or buy some started pullets down the road too. Question is....can I introduce the new ones to the flock?? Ive heard many many times that they will fight and possibly kill each other if new ones are added to the flock & don't get along w/the "old" ones. Ideally id like to see how many eggs we get w/12 chickens and then possibly get 6 more depending.
3. Husband wants to build 2 or 3 smaller chicken tractors instead of one large one because of portability and then we could put it between our building, smaller spaces, etc to have them eat down/ pick around on for a few days. Plus I need something me and my 12 yr old son can move on our own since my husband is gone for a while sometimes for many days. Would that work or would the chickens not get along if we let them out together then?? I ideally want to free-range but we have lots of predators in the area (mainly hawks) so Im not sure how that will go. So we may have to stick w/the chicken tractors and then lock up at night in the coop.
Ideas??? THanks so much!!!

 

[Den in Penn]

1- Starting a new flock you can put the layer in with the 2,5 month olds, it should work as they are all new to the coop so no one is defending home turf.
2- There are methods to integrate new chickens into a flock. Most of us do it successfully.
3- Having several coops is workable. There is usually little strife between two coops when they are using the same free range or large (Better then 10 square feet per bird) run.

 

[rd200]

thanks, good to know they should do fine together since they are all new.
If I don't have them free-ranging and just do 2 chicken tractors, then when Winter comes around, they will probably go in the barn all together and then be let out for a little every day depending on weather. Hopefully next winter isn't as horrid as this winter was in WI. Would that be a problem to house them together in winter if they weren't all together in spring/summer/fall??
Thanks for the info!

 

[Den in Penn]

If you have the tractors side by side for awhile before you put them into the barn for the winter then there will just be some jostling for the pecking order. It should work out.