Wondering if I've made things worse.... I introduced a couple young chicks 1week? and 2 wks? with three 4 wks and at first all was going well, until later on an hour or two, the littlest one got pecked at. so i was going to bed and didnt feel comfortable leaving them altogether and put the litte ones back in their own bed the next day, when i introduce them again, (at snack time) things were immediately outa wack. the whole attitude was different...like "hey guys, there's those little punks we ran off last time! they're not getting our snacks!!! Let's get em! It was completely different than the day before. probably snack time was not the best time, and probably woulda been better if i had just had more time to watch them together and kept them together the first time....like if i had done it early in the morning. and not separated them again. do you think that had something to do with it? made a bigger deal outa it? it was funny how the older ones were acting they have seen each other for a few days now. in the same room... I am not comfortable with the little one getting pecked. even gently
Try putting them together at night and letting them wake up with each other. When I combined two groups, it took a while. We called our groups rival gangs too!
Could you let them stay for now in their respective cages and have the cages some how in a larger area that they can roam in. I have done this with chicks and it worked pretty well as long as they have an familiar area to retreat to. Now I'm trying to put 2 yr old and 5 month old ones together in one coop at night. Not going too well. There are some pictures on my BYC Page.
