Help me move my flocks around?

[forgetful]

I'm trying to consolidate flocks, and it's giving me a headache. @-@ I'd appreciate some help.
Don't even ask me how it got so mixed up in the first place.

Here's my current situation (not to scale )

What I'm trying to balance is introducing new flock members to the silkie, cochin, and large fowl groups. Do you guys think placing one bird in a transition pen at a time, like a barred large dog pen, would get introduction out the way? I could place it in any pen, and open some option up in regards to moving birds around. I'm particularly worried about the 4 large fowl with any new comers, because they ganged up on an attempted introduction a few months ago. I wouldn't mind integrating one bird at a time, but I'm worried about stress. Do I make it a very stressful free for all for a small amount of time, or a slightly stressful string of new birds over a long period of time?

 

[Granny Hatchet]

it is allways better to introduce more then one bird at a time. at least 3 causes mass confusion and they dont get picked on as badly

 

[Granny Hatchet]

how about the two pens on the left end turned into dog pens and open all the rest of it up and keep all the chickens together unless you have mean roosters? i keep LF and the smallest bantams together.

 

[forgetful]

I would do that, but I'm trying to purify my chicks. The large pen chickens all grew up together, and get along, but I don't want silkie feathered Old English Game bantams. Lol.

What I'm thinking is, first put the 3 wyandottes in the large pen, then the three silkies from the large pen into the upper left pen. The game bantams would go straight to their breeding pen. The one cochin in the large pen is very low on any pecking order, so I'm trying to save her some strife, but by that point I'm a little stuck. I think I might place her in a dog pen in the lower left pen, and in the same move switch the two cochin to the same pen and move the 4 large fowl to the large pen. The large pen will be chaos for a while, and that's the part I'm worried about. This plan should give me this:

I'm still worried about the 4 large fowl hurting the wyandottes or lone large fowl when they move in. Is there anything I could do?

 

[ChickenLegs13]

Put the big chickens with the big chickens; the little chickens with the little chickens; and the games in their own pen.

 

[donrae]

Personally, I'd just move everyone where you need them and let them sort it out. Do it at night. You'll be moving those 4 lf to different pen and adding 4 birds total, right? That should keep excess bullying to a minimum. Put all the silkies together, again you're adding 3 to 3. Keep an eye on the one cochin that's being addd to the 2, but again it will be a new pen for everyone so that should help.

Moving a larger number of birds in is better than moving a single bird. It keeps the attention off one bird. One bird at a time is going to take forever and cause more stress than just doing it.

Make sure you have hiding places in the runs, plus distractions like logs, stumps, etc. For hiding places I use pallets or just lean plywood up against the run fence. Breaks line of sight for an aggressive bird.

If you have problems with the LF causing issues, put your games in with the cochins or silkies for a few days and put two of the LF in the breeder coop. That'll knock them down a few pegs.

 

[forgetful]

Sounds good to me. The LF beat up the addition so bad I had to re-seperate her and nurse her for days. She couldn't walk at all, and if she tried she could only scoot. It made me pretty wary, but I also knew I didn't want to drag it out.

The cochin is older than the breeding pair I'm adding her to, and also larger. I'm hoping it will give her an advantage. Plus, the pair are pretty docile themselves.

If I do it at night, will there be much fighting initially or will they just settle back down and go to sleep? I want to know if I need to sit and monitor them for a little while before going to bed myself.

Also, if I move everyone at once I'll be taking all the birds out of the large pen except the one large fowl. When I place seven or so birds in with her, do I need to watch her since she was in there first alone? Or will she be okay in the pandemonium? She was the bird that got beat up.

 

[donrae]

I've been moving 2 of my layers at a time to a smaller pen to get an idea of who is laying and who isn't. The smaller pen is permanent home to 3 bantam cochin hens. I go out after dark, take the two from the little pen and put them back on the shelf or roost in the big pen, and take two new hens off the roost in the large coop and set them on the roost in the small pen. There's a few minutes of balance/flapping, then they're all quiet. I don't think anything will happen until daylight.

Since you're putting two new groups in the large pen, I think the single LF should be fine. Just keep an eye on her in the am and give her hiding spots.