Advice needed on introducing one hen to an old one..

[ronmybaby]

I have a new young year old hen and right now she is in a dog cage butted up against the old hen I have in another cage. I wanted to introduce them to each other. the old hen acts like she is going to kill the new one. I am so scared to put them together in the big hen house. I am needing advice on what or how to do it. Plus once they live through the night without killing each other if I let the new one out the next day (they free range all day in the yard) how do I get the new one to know to come back to the big hen house at the end of the day. The older hen doesn't want anything to do with her. Will she just follow the older one? I don't want her to run away. Please offer some advice.

I swear the older hen is going to kill her. Please help.

 

[bietsch624]

I've introduced new hens on two different occasions. I have a smaller "house" that the new group lives in right next to the older group. Their run butts up to the older girls too. The older girls can still freerange during the day and new ones are confined to their run. They live this way for about a month - six weeks and then, I have a small chicken door that the younger ones can get into the older girls run. They seem to have gotten accustom to each other both times. There are the typical pecking order fights, but I've never had any abuse between them or ganging up on the new groups.