Adding to the flock

[pheonixstar15a]

ok, i have a question, i have 7 hens about 3 years old,( i did have 17 and my sons dog killed 9 and a opossum ran off with 1) I plan to get some new baby chicks, i will wean them in the house in a seperate cage, but when they are ready to go to the coop, will i have trouble intergrating them with the older hens. Do i need to build a seperate coop and run for the new girls. Thanks

 

[writermom]

I'm a newbie to BYC and chicken keeping, but I cared for a large variety of birds in the zoo field for about ten years, so I have a bit of knowledge in the area of introducing birds to each other. My current chicken situation is a bit different from yours, but you might be able to get some ideas from my plan for my upcoming chicken introductions. I have one adult hen and will be introducing three chicks to her once they are able to handle outdoor temperatures and are off of their chick diet. My adult is a bantam and was picked on by her larger coopmates in her former home. By the time my chicks are ready for introduction, they will be larger than my adult hen. I'm also assuming that the chicks will have the advantage of already being part of a flock. I want my adult hen to have the home field advantage when she is introduced to her new, larger coopmates, so I'll be moving her into the coop as soon as I'm done constructing it (which will hopefully be by this weekend). Once my chicks are able to be outside, I'll have them in a hutch next to the coop. I'll keep them there until they're ready to switch to the adult chicken diet. I do expect squabbles during the introduction, but hopefully everybody will settle in to a nice pecking order without too much trauma. I don't think my adult hen will end up being at the top of the pecking order, but I do want her to start the game with a nice advantage so she won't get completely beat up.

We'll see...

 

[pheonixstar15a]

Thank you for the input, i love Bantums, but are ordering the standard chickens. I used to have a Cochin Bantum rooster he was so sweet, i had sold all of the other chickens and he just was not home at the time i rounded them all up, so i kept him, he used to roost on my porch at night, eat with the dog out of the same dish( he liked dog food sometimes) and he had the run of the yard, nothing bothered him untill he made the mistake of going over the fence to my brothers house and their dog ate him, i felt so bad he was so cute and in the evening i could hold him and pet him.