adding one hen to 2 established hens

[balljet]

Have a nice coop about 9 x 6 and 6 ft high. Had 3 hens, unfortunately a predator got one of them.
So I am restricting their free range time to times when I am able to watch over them.
2 chickens just didn' t seem right. So I tried to add a hen, Now my birds are huge, and the new one, not so much. She is used to be outside fending for herself.
Came from a very healthy flock. I am having a heck of a time having the 3rd one accepted. I tried having them separate and being in the same area. Due to time constraints and the ability of the new one to escape her confinement, I soon had them roaming outside together. The new hen hides very well from the 2 big ones. I simply am running out of time to wait..
So, today I have one big hen and the new hen in the coop and the other established hen outside the coop.. I am hoping this will work .
Any other suggestions???

thanks Patricia

 

[5hensonly]

I had a similar problem - predator and introduction of new hen. I've heard it said that if you introduce the hen at night, your two hens would accept her as part of the flock. You are obviously past this and I didn't know that tip. My poor new hen got beat up pretty bad but one thing that helped was to put a box in the coop which could only be accessed by the new hen. This gives her a place of rest before enduring the onset of more punishment. She was eventually accepted and lays in the nesting box of the flock - but still roosts separately.
Hope it helps.

 

[aart]

Have a nice coop about 9 x 6 and 6 ft high. Had 3 hens, unfortunately a predator got one of them.
So I am restricting their free range time to times when I am able to watch over them.
2 chickens just didn' t seem right. So I tried to add a hen, Now my birds are huge, and the new one, not so much. She is used to be outside fending for herself.
Came from a very healthy flock. I am having a heck of a time having the 3rd one accepted. I tried having them separate and being in the same area. Due to time constraints and the ability of the new one to escape her confinement, I soon had them roaming outside together. The new hen hides very well from the 2 big ones. I simply am running out of time to wait..
So, today I have one big hen and the new hen in the coop and the other established hen outside the coop.. I am hoping this will work .
Any other suggestions???

thanks Patricia

It's worth a try....mix and match in different areas might break up the territoriality.

Single bird integration is the hardest...and with a small flock even harder with fewer distractions.

How long has this been going on?
Where is the new bird sleeping at night?

Adding new birds into coop at night rarely works, unless it's big flock.



It's all about territory and resources(space/food/water).
Existing birds will almost always attack new ones to defend their resources.
Understanding chicken behaviors is essential to integrating new birds into your flock.

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact.

In adjacent runs, spread scratch grains along the dividing mesh, best if mesh is just big enough for birds to stick their head thru, so they get used to eating together.

The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no copious blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down and beaten unmercilessly, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide 'out of line of sight'(but not a dead end trap) and/or up and away from any bully birds. Roosts, pallets or boards leaned up against walls or up on concrete blocks, old chairs tables, branches, logs, stumps out in the run can really help. Lots of diversion and places to 'hide' instead of bare wide open run.


Read up on integration..... BYC advanced search>titles only>integration
This is good place to start reading, tho some info is outdated IMO:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock

 

[balljet]

Jeez.. super good info.. i did figure some of it by plain observation. Implementation is another matter.
Thank you for your advice..


Advice I received was fantastic!! Thank you for all your time and effort/

Now, I learned quite a bit.. My situation was probably a bit more complicated due to the fact I had only 2 hens and tried to add only one.. and was limited in how much time I could spend observing the "integration" . I now have 4 hens, yes, that is 2 more.. and I have removed my one beautiful large gold laced wyandotte.. She was "big mamma" REALLY!!!!
"big Mamma" went to the neighbor's home, where there were 3 hens. Within.. ohh.. 5 minutes she became the alpha hen. There was a showdown, she stomped on the other (no 2 hen) and that was that!!!.. She is and was 'Big Mamma" again.. Amazing the boss she was!! Now my hens can integrate witnout too much trouble!

 

[pclark17]

Several weeks ago we rescued a golden laced wyandotte pullet/hen (5 months old) from a bad situation and have slowly tried to integrate her into our existing trio of 10 month old hens. I kept them separated for the first two weeks but in areas very near each other for visibility purposes. I also would allow the trio to range in the yard while the newcomer could explore the main coop/run areas and get as comfortable as possible. For the next week, I divided our main run/coop area into two separate areas with chicken wire so that all four were in the same space just without access to each other. I have added outdoor roosting bars, there are three feed stations, two water stations and other jumping/hideout stations now that I am allowing the four of them to interact. Our boss hen (barred rock) seems to accept the new hen in all areas with the exception of forbidding her entry into the coop at night to roost. The other two I have (RIR's) are the ones that attempt to scare her off of food areas, try to chase her or show off their pecking order hierarchy. It seems that for the most part, the new hen is comfortable, eats and drinks without too much issue but I am concerned about the night time roost situation. I tried the first several nights to just place her in there once the others went to roost. They seemed to allow that but now I have "let them be" and the main hen just will not allow the new hen to enter the coop for roosting regardless of how many times she tries, or even if I intervene. The new one is roosting outside on a wide tree branch ladder I built but it is open to all weather elements. My worry is that when it gets to be much colder, rains, snows, etc... she will not have a sheltered roost to go to.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!