I have five young hens that I am trying to blend into my flock. I kept them in a chicken tractor next to the rest of the run so the to sets of birds could see each other every day for a good month. When the young ones looked big enough to defend themselves I opened it up to let them mingle. What a mess. The young girls got harassed mercilessly and hounded back into their own little coop. I waited a little longer and put them into the same coop at night when they were all asleep. Yeah, right. As soon as I came in with the first one the whole flock woke up and began screaming like I was a fox! I have left them in there to sort themselves out and they don't seem to be blending at all. The five remain on posts inside the coop. They rarely get outside and if they DO manage to get outside they are refused the right to re-enter, so I come out at night and they are huddled next to the pop door. Most of them are the same breed so thats not the issue. How long will this go on? Did I wait too long to blend them?? Should I intervene in some way??
Have you tried removing a hen or 2 from your current flock that are doing the worst picking and putting them in the tractor. Disrupt the flock order so that when it re-establishes, the girls will at least be part of it.
As long as no one has drawn blood - let it go. They will work it out in a week. 2 at the most. The new girls will always be on the bottom of the pecking order - so nothing you can do there, but I'd bet most of the issue is noise & fluff, but not actually hurting the new birds. This is standard fare for new bird introduction. Especially since the new ones are smaller (younter). They already know not to challenge the older hens - the older ones will calm down pretty quickly now. You can get into trouble with crested polish though - because they can't see the older hens coming & dont' run - that is a challenge & they can be totally mangled. Your birds must go through this process to ensure peace in the community.
The younger ones just started laying.... the flock is sort of out of sorts anyway as one member is now in the tractor with her new babies!! She has 4 chicks a little over a month old. Looks like two boys and two girls. Tonight when I came to check on them one of the girls was out in the run with the rest but the other four were sitting on roosts already which seemed to torque off the flock something fierce!!
