help my hens hate the new additions!!!!!!!!

[chick-lit]

I bought 2 new hens they are about 2 months older than my girls, I have had them seperated and slowly introduced them... My girls are terrible they chase and peck them and the newbies don't fight back . They are so sweet but my girls have turned aggressive they won't leave them alone the new hens are laying my girls haven't started yet, I have to seperate them in the morning so they can lay their eggs in peace. I noticed the new hens have strange beaks the bottom beak is longer than the top and all the hens this man was selling looked like that. Did they have their beaks clipped? He also told me they where Rhode Island reds but they are a light red color with white feathers underneath they look like comets ..... Will my girls always fight with the new ones ?????

 

[ChooksChick]

They are likely productions reds or some such, and they had their beaks clipped- bless your heart for saving them!

How many birds are in your old (younger) flock? If you can separate out the aggressors and even the number up by keeping some separate for a while, that will allow the new ones an opportunity to settle in better.

Good luck!

 

[chick-lit]

I have 3 in my flock and added 2 new ones I had a rooster up until last week and a racoon attacked him he did not survive! I will be getting a rooster in Oct. I'm taking care of him over the winter maybe he will put some order in the hen house. Thank you for replying to my question..

 

[ChooksChick]

I would take the top hen and the bottom he out and let the new girls hang for a few days with the middle girl. If that doesn't work, you could take the top one out again for a while longer and perhaps the others will mellow in her absence.

I have probs STILL with my 4 older hens and 10 younger, yet grown, pullets. My other flocks don't care a bit, but in this one flock, there's still turmoil.

They will work it out, but it's not pretty to watch.

 

[tulie13]

Sorry to hear about your troubles, but I had to reply to this post.

After reading your title, I thought you said your hens ATE the new additions!!!

Need more coffee...

 

[BBK]

I just had this happen to me yesterday... My older-bigger hens pecked the daylight out of my silkies... i went in with a stick and chased the girl out..but it didn't work... so, i should try to take out the trouble makers, huh...i can do that, but for how long???

i ended up putting the silkies back in the chicken tractor. there's only 4 silkies to go into the pen with 10 hens...
melinda
any other suggestions?

 

[jerseygirl1]

Ah, I added adog crate in my chicken coop to keep everyone safe and happy,so far, so good. The four new layers are in the crate, and the 12 non-laying 14 weekolds are in the coop - I thought it was 30 days for newbies

 

[hen-thusiast]

Quote:
Guess I need more coffee too, because I read it the same way.

 

[sarjaysar]

I have 5 black rocks who are in their first season of laying. Introduced two silkies to them a couple of weeks back, I hatched the silkies in an incubator and once they were old enough to go outside, when I let my hens roam around the garden I let the silkies out with them. After a couple of months I put them all in the big pen together, there was quite alot of pecking and sqwarking going on, poor silkies are much smaller than the hens, but touch wood, it seems to have calmed down a little now. The Silkies are definitely bottom of pecking order..

Just today, i've got a further two pullets black rhodes, introduced those straight in with the flock, which was ok for about 30minutes until the resident hens (minus silkies) realised that they looked slightly different, legs are pale in colour!! Then the pecking began! Not nice to watch either, so what i've done is within the big pen there is a smaller pen that is attached to the hen house. I placed the silkies in there with the new pullets for a few hours to calm down. No real pecking going on, a little from the Silkies, but not too bad. Then this evening I placed them all in the hen house together. The new pullets jumped up on the perch with the existing hens, but I still expect fireworks tomorrow, so I guess its going to be trial and error for a couple of weeks.

I was wondering whether I should take the top hen out of the pack and place her in with the Silkies and newbies? Would 4 against the 1 top hen work for a day or two?