Adding new hens to an existing flock

[Cazook]

are you sure they're laid out? are their combs very pale and look old in general? whenever i got new chickens from somewhere i always had egg hunts for a month or so because they would take so long to lay in the nesting boxes...

 

[jayceesue]

are you sure they're laid out? are their combs very pale and look old in general? whenever i got new chickens from somewhere i always had egg hunts for a month or so because they would take so long to lay in the nesting boxes...

Pretty sure. One hen has a pale comb. The other two have red combs but I have had them four months and I look all over the yard and have seen nothing.

 

[jayceesue]

I have had three red sex link he s for four months now and have had zero eggs. After posting here several times and talking to local people, I determined that my hens were older than the seller told me and have most likely laid out. So. We bought four Cinnamon Queens last Friday. I have two coops set up in a larger fenced in pen. I have kept the two groups separate - letting the original trio out to free range in the morning and keeping the new girls inside the fenced pen. I put th new girls up in their coop and then let the original girls back in the pen and they go to their coop. I have separate food and water set up for both groups.

I read in Raising Chickens for Dummies that you should let the two groups see each other without having contact witheach other for 3-4 days, which will be tomorrow.

I did get one egg from the new group yesterday but nothing today. That is exciting!

so, any tips for putting them all together???

So, update on the co-mingling. I opened the pen for the new hens around 11:00 and it is now almost 6pm. The old hens have been down in the pen and the new hens have ventured out but not too far. There have been just a couple interactions but they seem to stay with their groups away from each other. So far, so good. I will continue this experiment tomorrow afternoon.

thanks to everyone who gave me advice!!!!