How to introduce 1 young hen into older flock of 3?

[Sunnysidedown]

Hi there!
I searched but could not find a similar situation as mine, so here it goes...

We presently have 3 one year old laying hens and yesterday my neighbor gave us one of his younger 3 month old hens. All 4 are the same size now so yesterday we placed the new one in a side-by-side run so that all the hens could see each other. Things seemed to go smoothly so we just now let the new hen in with the older ones. One of the older ones started chasing the younger one aggressively pecking at it as the young hen ran away in fear. So we separated them again until calm returns.

All 4 hens are different breeds (Buff, Wydennte (sp), Leghorn, and the new one is a Australorp (sp). The Wydennte is the aggressor chasing the Australorp.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated as to how to get the hens better conditioned to accept each other and to play nice. Be happy to supply more info if needed.
Thank You!

 

[Percheron chick]

A certain amount of that just has to happen to establish the pecking order. If you add the pullet after they go bed, sometimes the others barely take notice. Give the pullet a way to escape the bully. If she's really getting beat up, take the aggressor out and let her break in with the other two for a few days than add the bully back in.

 

[CrazyChickLady7]

A certain amount of that just has to happen to establish the pecking order. If you add the pullet after they go bed, sometimes the others barely take notice. Give the pullet a way to escape the bully. If she's really getting beat up, take the aggressor out and let her break in with the other two for a few days than add the bully back in.

x2 put her on the roost while the others are sleeping

 

[Sunnysidedown]

Thank you so much for the wise advice. The attacking wyandotte (finally spelt right?) has been the sweetest of all the 3 hens so we were surprised at it's anger towards the new young hen. We scolded it but probably to no avail. I'll try your "sneak her in at sleep time" idea to see what happens. But maybe give it one more try of a mid-day intro tomorrow. I plan to install a remote camera in the coop in a couple of days and would rather wait until then for the times when I'm not there to "supervise" I'll update this saga as time tells, and am open to other suggestions too! Thanks All!

 

[aart]

Putting them in the coop at night might work...some think the chickens wake up and don't notice an additional chicken....Pffft!
As bobbie-j sez: "chickens aren't the brightest animals on this planet, but they're not that stupid."

Integration aggression is about territory and resources(food/water).

IMO, separated by wire side by side for several weeks is the way to go.
Then.... lots of space, multiple feed/water stations, and plenty of places to hide 'out of line of sight' and/or up and away form the dominant ones...and time.




Here's some notes I've taken on integration that I found to be very helpful.......
......take what applies or might help and ignore the rest.
See if any of them, or the links provided at the bottom, might offer some tips that will assist you in your situation:

Integration of new chickens into flock.

Consider medical quarantine:
BYC Medical Quarantine Article
Poultry Biosecurity
BYC 'medical quarantine' search

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact. Integrating new birds of equal size works best.

For smaller chicks I used a large wire dog crate right in the coop for the smallers. I removed the crate door and put up a piece of wire fencing over the opening and bent up one corner just enough for the smallers to fit thru but the biggers could not. Feed and water inside the crate for the smallers. Make sure the smallers know how to get in and out of the crate opening before exposing them to the olders. this worked out great for me, by the time the crate was too small for the them to roost in there(about 3 weeks), they had pretty much integrated themselves to the olders.

If you have too many smallers to fit in a crate you can partition off part of the coop with a wire wall and make the same openings for smallers escape.


The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide out of line of sight and/or up and away from any bully birds.

Read up on integration..... BYC advanced search>titles only>integration
This is good place to start reading:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock

 

[Sunnysidedown]

Update :

Just over 2 weeks now and things have settled down a little between the new & older hen. Placing them on the same roost at nite does allow them to sleep together in peace but it's not a quick fix. Once they wake up it's jump and run time. But the new hen has learned how to manage itself to escape and know when the other hen is ready to run after it. It started off with some back biting but that has settled down into chasing a bit mode. The new hen has several escape options within my coop/run setup so it could never be cornered. The new hen does have 2 new friends with the other hens and hangs around the Buff like it's her mom. The new hen is just as large as the older 3 (all 1YO). In time they'll work it out and the new hen should develope some courage to stand her ground. Thanks again for the advice!