Help! They will not get along!

[Pit Bull Farm]

I am new to keeping chicken and when we got our new house it already had chicken coops. I have a HUGE coop that they use to keep peacocks in so I thought I could have a bunch of chickens on our happy little farm. Boy was I wrong!!

I got 4 Buff Orpingtons from my neighbor and they are about 2 years old, then I got 2 guinea hens. Then I bought 4 baby chicks to raise and later release unto the coop. On Easter my husband bought me 3 more chickens. 2 Road Island reds and a rooster. They were raised together and they were about 2 months old but already decent size. Well I took the new birds in the coop and let them run around with the buff's and I can back only 10 min later and they had pecked all the skin off the back of a hens head. I have never seen something so gruesome! I though for sure she was going to die since now I could see her skull. It was from eye to eye around the back of the head and about 2" down the neck. The chicken did live and she is now my fav.

Long story short I still cannot try and introduce new chicken my Buff's are out for blood anytime I try. I did let the other road Island and the rooster go in the middle of the night, thinking it would be ok. When I woke up they pecked my rooster and the hen bloody. They found somewhere to hide till I found them that morning.

The Buff's lived in a large coop with many other chicken before I got them. Now I have a huge coop with only 4 Buff's and 2 guineas, and the babies are in the smaller coop.

How can I put the groups together? any ideas?

here is part of the big coop

Here is where the babies are, it's a smaller coop inside the big one

Here is "Reba" (she is a sassy red head survivor! lol) the chicken they almost killed. You can see she is healed up but will always have scars

 

[silkeysandra]

i have read in a few mags that it is a bad idea to put chickens of different ages together. I am also having problems introducing younger chickens to my older ladies. I will watch them pretty close. right now nobody likes them but they aren't clucky yet. I keep them seperated.
You may end up having to divide the coop area so everybody is safe. bummer.

 

[windtryst]

First I keep the new guys & gals in an area nearby where the old hens can see them.After I get home from work, I let them out, then I stand in the coop yard with a water spray bottle and squirt the mean hens when they try to peck on the new ones, it seems to work after a few days.

 

[kycklingar!]

Yes, what windtryst said.
Another technique, once they are bigger and ready to assimilate, is to put ONE of the adult BOs in the small enclosure with the chicks, so the chicks have the home advantage, and outnumber her. Repeat with each adult, one at a time for several days. This may help ease the transition.

 

[windtryst]

kycklingar! :

Yes, what windtryst said.
Another technique, once they are bigger and ready to assimilate, is to put ONE of the adult BOs in the small enclosure with the chicks, so the chicks have the home advantage, and outnumber her. Repeat with each adult, one at a time for several days. This may help ease the transition.

That could work, but make sure there is someplace for the new ones to run & hide if the BO tries to peck them in their little coop....
Once I put a milk crate down in the coop so the little ones could run inside & be safe.​

 

[Pit Bull Farm]

Thaks for the ideas and that is what I was thinking in a way.

My idea (let me know what you think) is to put the 4 big chickens in the small coop and let the young ones have free roam of the large coop. Then I was going to add the big chickens back one at a time over a few weeks.
The "babby" chicks are older now and a few are almost as big as the adults. I let them hang out together today while I cleaned the coop and it was fine till one started to really get after the young ones and I had to seperate them again. I guess if everything I try fails seperating the coop might not be a bad idea.

 

[Brindlebtch]

I had 3 nasty girls in my flock that would peck and harass any newcomer. I ended up buying the clip on peepers from eggcartons.com and that calmed everything down. I left them on for a couple of weeks and took them off 2 days ago and everybody seems to be getting on fine.

 

[Dr.Doorlock]

My answer is always the same.....Pinless Peepers from eggcartons.com. I had a severe pecking problem with all my pullets in too little space. They simply cannot see in front of them to peck another chicken. They can see to the side and down. After awhile, you can take them off and they will be used to being around the others and will not peck.

BTW, I even found a way to have fun with this treatment and my girls didn't seem to mind wearing them. After just a few minutes, they went about their business like the peepers weren't even there.

Take a look at my web site and ask me anything you need to know. I even have the perfect peeper pliers for 1/2 what eggcartons.com sells.

 

[lindabean]

They certainly are funny looking! How do you get them to stay on? Is the blue thing what you sell? If not, where do you get them?

 

[Pit Bull Farm]

I am going to try the pinless peepers but I can use them Guineas too?