Combining two separate flocks

[suzannaski]

Hi
I'll apologize in advance if this was covered somewhere else; I did a search but all I found was info on adding chicks to a flock.
I have a neighbor who is moving, and has offered me her 5 Orps. I have 2 yearling Americaunas.
Am I asking for a gang fight? Is there a proper way to integrate the two (tiny) flocks?
Any helpful advice would be welcome.
Thanks!

 

[DADDYS HENS]

I had 6 chickens and was given two Cochins this past July. I'm new to raising chickens so didn't know very much. I just thought "put um all together"boy was I wrong my 6 was pecking at the Cochin BAD!! So here is what I did and it worked great........ I don't know how big your coop is but if you have the room, I put up some chicken wire in my coop (a divider wall) to seperate the 6 from the cochins. after a few days I took it down and this seemed to work everyone got along.

 

[RedfogsFlock]

When we introduced our two flocks what we did was....


1. We put a coop in a coop for almost a month.

2. When introduction day came we did it during free range time, and we let the new girls out first. We gave them about 15 min before letting the old girls out. When it came time to roost for the night we still seperated them for about two more weeks.

We did this same thing when we introduced our roo to the flock. He was 6 weeks old, and our girls were close to 6 months old. They have never picked on him, and everything went very smoothly.

Hope this helps