Hello from central NC

[Ncnative]

Hi, my wife and I have decided to add a few chickens to our menagerie of 1 horse, 1 pig, and four dogs. We are both in our 50's and live in central NC.

Of course I have a question

It seems we made a fatal error (fatal to some of our chickens). We had chickens in two separate pens, in one we had adults, a Speckled Sussex rooster, two Red Sexlink hens, and 1 Easter Egger hen. In the other we had 9 pullets all about 3/4ths grown. We had expanded the one pen area to about 800 sq ft and decided to mix all the chickens together. We put the 9 pullets in with the 4 adults last night. All seemed well this am however when I went back around 3 pm, four of the 3/4 grown pullets were dead. Three were dead in the outside run the other inside the coop. No noticeable injuries other than quite a few feathers, no blood or guts. I'm sure there was no predators involved. The temperature here today was in the mid-90's with a heat index over 100, we did have a fan running in the coop. We are guessing that maybe the stress of being moved along with the heat and trying to establish a new pecking order may have killed them? Or do you think that the other hens/pullets just attacked them and if so, what is the best way to introduce new chickens to the flock? We have 3 more adult hens that we are hoping to eventually add to the mix.

Ps
All of these chickens have been out "free ranging" together 4 or 5 times for an hour or so without issues.

 

[redsoxs]

Greetings from Kansas, ncnative, and

. Happy you joined us but sorry to hear about your chicken introduction woes. Here is a great link to an article that talks about how to intro new birds to an established flock https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock
You can also just enter 'introducing new chickens' into the BYC search bar and access a ton of threads. Additionally, lots of great info is to be had perusing the Learning Center (brown tab above). Best of like with your birds!

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi and welcome to BYC. Rather than hypothesising on what may have occurred - the link that Redsoxs has given you should help in terms of integration, as well as these.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1015820/reintegration-by-supervised-visits#post_15742910

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1126547/topic-of-the-week-integrating-chicks-into-an-adult-flock

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1069595/introducing-chicks-to-adults#post_16276224

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/introducing-new-chickens-using-the-see-but-don-t-touch-method

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1098683/introducing-new-chickens-to-old-flock#post_16895615

Somewhere in-between this and other info you will find, should help you determine an approach that suits you.

Best wishes
CT

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

 

[drumstick diva]

So sorry to hear of your loss- the older birds may have also bullied them away from feeder and water - and the stress & heat added to their demise.