Injured chicken now better

[purpledragons]

So, I have a small flock. 4 hens and 1 rooster. I wanted more so I let them sit on some eggs. I only got one chick. The flock kinda ignored her and acted like she didn't exist. I went out and bought some chicks(6) from a fair to have more. The chicks are inside the house. Shortly after I found my hatched chick had gotten stuck under the fence and scalped herself. So she in the house in her own cage. So now she's better and was wondering how to bring her back out side. She is about 6 weeks now and the 6 chicks are 4 weeks. Should I introduce her to the old flock first or with the babies?

 

[purpledragons]

So I put her outside in the pen in a cat crate. None of them really seem to care. One hen came over and looked in the door and then walked away.

 

[aart]

I'd try to integrate her with the chicks in the house, then integrate the whole group of chicks when the time is right.
Hope your brooder is big, or you can partition off the coop and run outside.


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