Drama in the coop.. integration

[garye5007]

Hello, I have five 9 week old birds and five older ladies that I have kept in a separate part of the coupe. I had a plastic netting between the two so they could see each other for a couple of weeks. Yesterday I cut a hole in it so that they could start to get together and one of the older girls got in with the younger girls and they are terrified. Are they gonna work it out or did I try to integrate them too early? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

 

[kattabelly]

What actually happened between them when they were together that terrified the younger ones?

Do they have plenty of things to hide under/behind and more than one place to eat and drink? A picture of the space they're in would be helpful.

 

[Finnie]

Can you reattach some plastic netting over the hole you made so that only the littles can fit through it? That way they can come out to explore the hen side and retreat to safety if the hens pick on them.

On the other hand, if the hens aren’t drawing blood, just let them work it out. @kattabelly ’s suggestions of places to hide and plenty of food and water stations will be a great help.

 

[garye5007]

Youngsters are all hiding in the corner. I kicked out the older hand and blocked the entrance for now the older hen that got in is one of the smaller ones. They aren’t drawing blood and the youngsters can get to their food and water OK. I’ll wait it out And see if I can’t get them together. I really want them all to get out into the big run.

 

[garye5007]

By the way, thank you very much for the replies!

 

[kattabelly]

If the younger ones are just panicking because new stuff is scary but nothing awful actually happened, I'd also be inclined to let them work it out. Make sure there's plenty of clutter for hiding places / escape routes and that they have at least two feed & water stations, with some of the clutter positioned to break the line of sight between them.

When you say older hens, what age are they?

 

[RojoMarz]

Youngsters are all hiding in the corner. I kicked out the older hand and blocked the entrance for now the older hen that got in is one of the smaller ones. They aren’t drawing blood and the youngsters can get to their food and water OK. I’ll wait it out And see if I can’t get them together. I really want them all to get out into the big run.

Sounds like mine. They hide behind stuff, in a corner and ran when a hen approached for a week or so. Then they began progressing to go outside of the corner area...still ran when a hen came near. Now, they are starting to venture out of the inside run and into the outside run. But they still run when a hen comes close. No one is getting hurt, so I consider it normal behavior of learning the chicken life and who's in charge.