how to put new girls together

rita2paul

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ok i have got 8 chickens all different breeds that are kept isolated in different place, they now need to go in the out door pen which has loads of room, but i am worried they might fight, it's an area that none of them has seen, 4 chickens are from my own hatch, two from another breeder and two bantams.
they are a mixture of silver laced wyandotte, araucana and hybrids. all bantams. some are 16 weeks and some 12 weeks.
shall i put them in the chicken house at night and hope they all get along in the morning.
 
It's not called 'pecking order' for nothing...yes, they will 'fight' in order to establish dominance.

If you do not have three coops (or dog-houses or dog crates), then placing them together at night will start the process of integration. Just get up at dawn and give them a super special treat (warm oatmeal with black oil sunflower seeds; homemade cornbread) to get them to focus on the treat and not picking on one another!

Depending on your set-up inside the coop - and supplies on hand - you could create separate but together housing using dog crates placed adjacent to one another - put each 'group' of chicks together in their own crate to get used to seeing one another...but frankly, that just lengthens the time to integrate. I rarely use this method unless I have groups of greatly different ages (adults; 20wk old; 3wk old).

Yes, they will 'bicker' and 'fight' but rarely to the point of harming one another. It's more like tusseling to figure out who is dominant. And yes, it changes. And yes, they do this daily. For years...actually, their entire life!
 
Are there other chicken in the pen/chicken house/coop already?
If not, I'd just put them all in there at the same time.
I'd do it during the day so you don't have to get up at the crack of dawn to supervise.

Here's some other tips that might help.

Integration Basics:
It's all about territory and resources(space/food/water).
Existing birds will almost always attack new ones to defend their resources.
Understanding chicken behaviors is essential to integrating new birds into your flock.

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.

In adjacent runs, spread scratch grains along the dividing mesh, best if mesh is just big enough for birds to stick their head thru, so they get used to eating together.

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 copious blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down and beaten unmercilessly, 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'(but not a dead end trap) and/or up and away from any bully birds. Roosts, pallets or boards leaned up against walls or up on concrete blocks, old chairs tables, branches, logs, stumps out in the run can really help. Lots of diversion and places to 'hide' instead of bare wide open run.

Another option, if possible, is to put all birds in a new coop and run, this takes the territoriality issues away.
 
thank you for your advice, i have booked a day off work so i can watch them. i have a electric fence around the run and two feeding areas and water, as this will be a new area for them all i am hoping for minimal fights, fingers crossed. i will let you know the outcome.
 
ok got up at 5 this morning before the birds, here we are in May and a frost on the ground, but a beautiful morning, glad i got up. anyway some squabbling started up a bit of a tussle but no harm done. it's now 7.30 and it's a lot better, they have not left the pen yet even though the pop hole is open for them to go out in the run which is about 30 feet long with a electric fence around them. so far so good.
 

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