We shall see. My Lavender Orp just started laying in the past week. Her buddy is a Blue Silver Laced Orp who should start laying any day now. Maybe they'll manage to climb the pecking order a bit. They are big girls. It's a bit odd to see two Orps get bossed around by my Speckled Sussex and Gold Laced Wyandotte, both of which are smaller than the Orps.
Interesting that you introduced 30 new to 5 existing. Often it's the other way around. I think I would have just mixed 30 with the 5 without any 'look don't touch' period. Their may be a minimal amount of pecking, but as long as they are at least 8 weeks old they would be able to fend for themselves. 30x 8 week olds and 5 adults... I would put my money on the 30x 8 week olds to keep the 5 adults in check. Only worry would be if the roo is aggressive - that certainly could lead to problems. I would remove him to a look don't touch quarantine and mix his hens with the 30 new in that case. After a week, he would ant all the hens, not just his old ones - hormones...
We hatched a set of local backyard mixes to start, then wanted some pure bred chickens, ducks and guineas so that’s how we ended up with so many new young birds! The coop and run were split and the older birds had one half and the new, 1 month babies another half. They had the split coop until babies were two months, then we started letting them all out to free range together, then letting them spend more and more time together until there was no separation when babies were 3 months. Soooo, it was a slow 2 month integration. The hens (really just older pullets) were pretty mean and even now, still put the newer pullets, cockerel, ducks and guineas in their place; they were not overwhelmed by all those youngsters! The rooster (older cockerel) mostly just ignored the youngsters until they started laying, but he sometime followed the hens in pecking the younger birds around food or roosting time. I ended up being the roosting referee for awhile, getting older birds on one side and new birds on another, or the older pullets would terrorize the younger. I am back to roost referee since adding the two youngest (5 mo) pullets a few weeks ago.
