Indroducing 1-2 pullets

[jorbri]

Hi everyone, We are new to raising chickens. We started with 4 eight day old chickens. One unfortunately died early on. The 3 remaining (1 sussex and 2 rhode island red) are going well and are now 16weeks old. We would like to get another chicken to even it out but now sure to how to go about introducing them. If we are going to upset everything I would not go ahead. I heard it's better to get a similar age for eg? Thanks Vicki

 

[Quella]

Lucky you, having chickens.
I have a few friends that do raise chickens, and usually, it's best when all the chickens are about the same size to introduce them. After they settle back into the pecking order, all should be well.

 

[happyhensny]

This spring I purchased 8 day-old chicks, 1 died within a couple days. The remaining 7 were healthy. 1 ended up being a very sassy Roo that went after EVERYONE but me. I could pick him up and he would sleep in my arms like a baby (Golden Polish) Kids, Mother-in-Law, he wasn't a very social guy, ended up going to a friends farm were they know how to handle handsome but rough boys. (leave him alone with the girls and let him do his thing

) Then, I felt I needed more to keep my current girls warm in the winter. We have had a VERY cold winter this year - many days well below ZERO!! A friend gave me 4 hens and a Roo that were about 5 months younger than my girls. We put the new ones in the coop at night and hoped for the best. Our coop is 4 x 8 x 6ft tall with an attached 6 x 14 chain link dog run that have access to every day. Well, we've had them now for a couple of months and although we can tell the pecking order is still we the older girls, the new girls are fine after a bit of chasing and pecking, and the Americauna Roo is VERY happy with his 11 girls. Good luck and have fun!

 

[jorbri]

Thanks to both of you for your help. Vicki

 

[chookchick]

I would suggest that you get 2 pullets. You should keep them in quarantine for at least 2 weeks to make sure they don't have any illnesses or pests (the stress of moving could bring on any latent illness). Having separate living quarters will also give you options if things don't work out right away. I would then separate out part of the run so that they can see, but not get too each other, for 2 weeks. Then try putting them together. Some people put them on the roost at night and seem to have no trouble with integration. Good luck, it can be difficult in a confined area.

 

[cmom]

My hens are 1-1/2 yrs old and my pulletts are 16 weeks old. I put the little girls in a separate run for about a month that is next to the big girls run. I let them all out in the yard together to free range. I have two big girls that are very agressive towards the little girls even though they are about the same size. I have the two agressive ones in chicken jail. This weekend I am going to let them out of jail and see how it goes as they have been in jail for a good week now. Originally when I let them out together I thought the two big girls were going to kill the little girls as they would really pounce on them. One even pulled out a bunch of tail feathers out of one of the young ones. Hope yours go more smoothly.