Having trouble introducing a couple new pullets to my flock!! advice or suggestions please!

[candira]

Hi, I have 6 RIRs, that I got when they were about 4 months old, but are about 6 months old now. About 2 weeks ago, I bought 2 Americauna (I know they are probably easter eggers, either way is fine with me) pullets that are around 5 months old. I did not quarantine (I will always in the future after reading about it here on byc) but i did put them in the coop at night and thought things would be fine. It has now been 2 weeks, and they still wont leave the coop. I am always having to take food and water into the coop, and lock the other chickens out, or they will come in and get the pullets away and eat/drink the food/water. I have tryed this last week putting them in a dog kennel (with food and water) in the run but it doesn't seem to help. Are my RIRs ever going to accept my new pullets?? Any comments are appreciated, thanks! ~Candice

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Maybe but RIRs tend to be the bullies of a flock and Ameraucanas, not so much.
The fact that the new kids are smaller and fewer in number makes it that much harder.
Your best bet is to take the 4 biggest bullies out and let the 2 younger ones make friends with the 2 left.
Then after 4 or 5 days, return one bully each day.
Keeping the new ones separate won't necessarily help.
When adding new birds, you always have to add feeding and water stations. The first are an established flock and don't take kindly to outsiders. They're seen as a threat to the flock - stealing food, water and possibly bringing in disease.

 

[candira]

Thanks so much, I appreciate your reply. Although, I'm in a bit of a pickle, I only have 2 coops, both with outside runs (I don't let them free range bc there are many roaming dogs around. My other coop has 8 smaller chicks that are 8 months old and 2 ducks. So I can't move any to it. I have thought about putting the ameraucanas in with them, but then I afraid they will pick on the smaller chicks? I don't quite know what to do. I appreciate any suggestions! Thanks! ~Candice

 

[aart]

Here's some notes I've taken on integration that I found to be very helpful.......
......take what applies or might help and ignore the rest.
See if any of them, or the links provided at the bottom, might offer some tips that will assist you in your situation:

Integration of new chickens into flock.

Consider medical quarantine:
BYC Medical Quarantine Article
Poultry Biosecurity
BYC 'medical quarantine' search

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact. Integrating new birds of equal size works best.

For smaller chicks I used a large wire dog crate right in the coop for the smallers. I removed the crate door and put up a piece of wire fencing over the opening and bent up one corner just enough for the smallers to fit thru but the biggers could not. Feed and water inside the crate for the smallers. Make sure the smallers know how to get in and out of the crate opening before exposing them to the olders. this worked out great for me, by the time the crate was too small for the them to roost in there(about 3 weeks), they had pretty much integrated themselves to the olders.

If you have too many smallers to fit in a crate you can partition off part of the coop with a wire wall and make the same openings for smallers escape.


The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide out of line of sight and/or up and away from any bully birds.

Read up on integration..... BYC advanced search>titles only>integration
This is good place to start reading:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock