Chicken kicking out new girls from coop at night

[GiaGallina]

I have 3 1 year old chickens that grew up together, we added 2 new chickens, currently about 12-14 weeks old. Integration seemed to go really well, no bullying or pecking, just little bit of chasing them around. The last few nights one of my older girls has been going into the coop early and as soon as one of the new girls comes in she chases them out. This has caused 1 or 2 of them to miss the automatic door closing. Any helpful suggestions on what to do would be appreciated!

 

[Battlepants]

There is a theory of shaking up the pecking order where you take your bully hen(s) away from the coop and store them in a dog crate for a couple days, then re-introduce them to the flock one at a time (about a day between each reintroduction). In theory, they would each come back to the flock as a complete newbie rather than an established leader, forcing them to be a bit submissive to the others in the flock. I'm wondering if this could be applied here.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Two options:
Remove the older hen and isolate her, although she likely will begin the behavior again as soon as she is back in the coop.

Delay or turn off the automatic door until this works itself out. It may take another month or two. Young pullets get no respect from the older hens, and roosting dominance is a key time it is displayed.

Usually when the pullets begin to lay, things have settled a bit (after they figure out who gets to lay in the nest boxes first).

Sadly it is simply flock order working itself out.

LofMc

 

[GiaGallina]

There is a theory of shaking up the pecking order where you take your bully hen(s) away from the coop and store them in a dog crate for a couple days, then re-introduce them to the flock one at a time (about a day between each reintroduction). In theory, they would each come back to the flock as a complete newbie rather than an established leader, forcing them to be a bit submissive to the others in the flock. I'm wondering if this could be applied here.

I thought about isolating her, however since it just started and I felt like that would be mean why I was hoping for another solution. Thank you so much for response

 

[GiaGallina]

Two options:
Remove the older hen and isolate her, although she likely will begin the behavior again as soon as she is back in the coop.

Delay or turn off the automatic door until this works itself out. It may take another month or two. Young pullets get no respect from the older hens, and roosting dominance is a key time it is displayed

I will try turning Off the automatic door… thank you so much!

 

[3KillerBs]

How big is your coop? And how much roost space do you have?

If the chickens are feeling crowded they'll evict the low-ranked birds.

 

[GiaGallina]

How big is your coop? And how much roost space do you have?

If the chickens are feeling crowded they'll evict the low-ranked birds.

My coop and run is plenty big. I am going to turn off the auto door and if I need to put the brooder kennel back inside the coop for them to go into, I will until they out grow it. I realize the girls need to just reestablish a pecking order… lol I need to be patient and let them do their thing and not try to force things along.