Ever used peepers/blinders to help w/introductions?

[Aimless Farmer]

I have six 3 month olds and four 1+ year olds who need to meet soon. I've had two "When Chickens Attack" moments this past month, 1 which resulted in the death of one of my 1+ year olds due to a broken neck, and 1 which resulted in stitches, antibiotics and pain medication in one of my 3 month olds. I'm having SERIOUS anxiety about introductions now, even more than before. I called an acquaintance of mine who does 4H poultry in the next town over, and among other things he suggested using peepers/blinders for a day on the adults until everyone calmed down. Has anyone ever used these? Other suggestions? I understand there will be pecking, but I can't take anymore of the gorey violence that we've had here on our little bucolic homestead!

(They look like this: http://www.nationalband.com/nbtgame.htm#3184)

 

[xanaxnation]

i've never used it but it sounds pretty self explanatory and like a great idea. if your coop is big enough maybe you could section off a small part for the little guys for a few days so everyone can smell each other, etc.

i do feline rescue and a lot of times i put a new cat/kitten in the bathroom so they can smell/talk to the others in the house (and vice/versa) when everyone stops growling, i supervise their interaction and just go from there. perhaps chickens would work in a similar manner?

best wishes!

 

[Aimless Farmer]

The "teen" nursery is chicken wired within the adult chicken yard, with sheets tied over the top as a roof. The corner of one sheet blew off on a windy day, which is how the one teen escaped. All these chickens have been eye-to-eye through the chicken wire on a daily basis since the end of May, yet when that one got out...carnage!

 

[camille]

I wrote back to you when you wrote to me about the raccoon, but I didn't know how to address the reply to you personally. Anyway, you can go back to the raccoon post to read what I wrote. But to add to what I wrote about sectioning off a bit of the yard, I wanted to agree with the others about sectioning off a little bit of the yard. What happens is they look at eachother for many weeks so that they get used to eachother's existance. I also let the teen chicks escape from a small hole in their yard to run out into the others and run back into their section where the big ones can't follow 'cause they're too fat. That's how mine started to eat with the others. They are like little young adults now and still get very harrassed, but not their lives threatened. They still always run away from them who peck at them. But they are used to eachother. They need to be separate, but in the same yard looking at eachother for at least a month before mingling- depending on how large they are to start with I guess.
I don't know about the blinders. It sounds kind of weird to me because the chickens may calm down, then I imagine you would take them off and they would attack again. I don't get it. Also, like I said, it seems to take many many weeks for them to relax and leave the new ones alone. I don't see how blinders could speed up that process.
Anyway, let us know what you do. Good luck!