Combining pullets from two different flocks?

[Circejane]

This will be my first foray into chickens. I'm getting 2-3 Isa Brown pullets from a friend (they're 8 weeks old now), but was thinking to add several showier birds to the flock as well. I know that adding birds later can be problematic (although when these stop laying in future years, they will be in retirement and new layers will be added in).

There are Cochin pullets available in my area, and I'm thinking of getting one or two. My questions are these:

1. Is it better to combine two groups of pullets in the same age range than to add new birds later?

2. Is there anything besides making sure that the birds are healthy that I should be aware of if putting them all together?

Thanks in advance for any input!

 

[K9Dave]

Hope the pic shows up ok. I am going through an integration now. This pic was taken a couple weeks ago. I had 4 young roosters at the time and they were being butts so I put that dishwasher rack in there to give them a place to retreat. I added 3, 2 week olds to a flock of 8, 6-7 week olds. They're doing great and sleep together at night now. The roosters are gone and that really calmed the entire mood down when they left. Just give them places to escape an attack. You can put te new ones in a kennel or something to where they can be seen by your current birds. You'll have no problems. Good luck.