How well are our introductions going?

[ThinkingChickens]

I figured others could talk about their integrations as well. Here is what is going on in my flock-

I added three girls to my three existing girls. First, I kept them separate until the babies were four weeks. Then I moved the babies outside into a dog pen with a coop and the big girls could come around and check them out. They've been in this situation for three weeks. Sometimes the babies get out, or we let them out. If the big girls get close they might peck the babies but there has been no feather pulling or chasing really. The babies (now seven weeks) try to stay out the big girls way.

Our next planned step is to section off an area of the new walk in run and continue general integration while supervised until the girls are bigger (maybe 14-16 weeks). Of course, if one flies over the gate that's their business, but nothing forced. Does this sound like it's going okay?

How about your integrations?

 

[Jeffross1968]

I'm thinking we got lucky. We had 7 birds, built a new coop and planned on adding 8 or 9 more. 1 of our 7 was a confirmed golden sebright rooster. 2 more were unknowns, and then 3 brown leghorns and an older barred rock (not sure how old, and not sure of exact age of any of them really, though the BL's were supposedly 8 months when we got them back in May). Our smallish coop was destroyed in a storm, so we decided to take the time to build the new one.

Once the new one was finished, we introduced the original 7 to it. Unfortunately, the sebright did not handle the move well, and started attacking some birds. I immediately removed him and gave him away. A couple days later, I purchased 4 twelve week olds (RIR, Black Jersey Giant, Black SL, and Golden Comet). They are in the revamped small coop still, and will be for another couple of weeks, in full view and interacting with the older birds as they free range. A day after that we picked up some 5 month olds (1 each BO, SLW, Speckled Sussex, EE, and Brahma). We arrived at home just after dark that night, and introduced them right to the existing flock. They had all been inoculated for the big 3, and they're all big beautiful healthy birds, so felt no sequestration due to possible illness was required. Because it was night time, there were no issues. They all took a couple minutes to fly up onto one of the roosts and fell asleep.

The next day, we made the decision to keep them in the coop/run for a week so they could identify with their sleeping arraignments, and make sure they come home at night. Things went a little crazy with one of the unknowns, and for the 3rd or 4th time, I posted pics to find out gender. A consensus was reached and both were found to be roosters. We gave away the most aggressive one to guy down the street, and things calmed down. Over the next 3 days, things went so well we decided to speed up the schedule and let them out to free range, and haven't looked back. The only continued issue is our EE, who tends to like to burrow under the others on the roost at night until she finds just the right spot. Apparently, getting pecked a couple dozen times a night as reward for her actions is fine with her

They now are all seemingly very happy. This was 8 days ago. My BR has continued laying without fail. 2 of the new ones, the BO and Sussex laid the first day they were here, and then stopped due to stress. The BO has laid again just yesterday, along with one of our BL's who never laid before. The other two BL's have been sporadic. Today, the EE's comb turned bright red, and she squatted when I approached her and she let me pet her. That's first time in many tries over the last week, so I'm guessing she's about to lay. So all in all, though we had to rid ourselves of 2 roo's, things have gone very well. Unfortunately, they'll probably all be laying in a couple weeks when it will be time to introduce the little ones. Then the flock will be complete...for now