Integrating a new chicken

dowgirl71

Songster
9 Years
Oct 25, 2012
457
16
161
Brewer, Maine
We were given a 1.5 yr old Barred Rock hen, this fall and I'm working on integrating her in with my original 3 Barred Rocks (6 months old). We live in the city and they don't free-range. My girls have a nice little coop but there isn't much room for my new chicken to get away. We've had her for a month now and for the past couple weeks, her pen has been right up next to the coop. So, they've met, but with 2 fences between them. Today, I tried putting her in with them, but it didn't go well. She had no problem with 2 of them, but the dominant one actually got a hold of her comb and drew some blood. After that, I separated them again. Any suggestion on what I should do now? Thanks!
 
Wow, I wish I had a solution for you and knew what to tell you. I know that chickens def have a pecking order similar to other animals. The ones you had first may not accept a new member. You just can't make them like each other. You may have to resolve to keep them in separate quarters if they don't get along. Good luck.
 
I have more room so I have never tried this, BUT, I have read that... If you take the dominant hen and put HER in the pen next to the coop, the others will find a new pecking order and she will now be the "new" chicken. Then integrating her stronger personality back into the flock may go easier. Just an idea...
 
I was kinda' starting to wonder if I might have to keep them separate due to my smaller quarters. My new chicken, Burnadette is the only one laying for me, right now. So, I don't want to mess that up. She's given us an egg/day for the past week-it's been great! I may just keep trying, every once in a while and when I have more time. Do you know if when they "draw blood" from getting pecked, that's a sign I need to separate them quickly? Seems like I read something about that somewhere.
 
Mine are free-range so it might be a little different, but we still had to integrate them all to sleep in the same coop. FOOD. Food is a good bribe and a good distraction when putting new chickens together. Put some feed between them and let everyone feed.
 
I have more room so I have never tried this, BUT, I have read that... If you take the dominant hen and put HER in the pen next to the coop, the others will find a new pecking order and she will now be the "new" chicken. Then integrating her stronger personality back into the flock may go easier. Just an idea...

x2 if you cannot free range them.
 
I am having a god awful time as well trying to integrate my 7 month old with my now 10 week old chicks. I read here 2 months old was the perfect age to do this.Put them to bed together and let them work it out. Well that didn't work. I had them in the coop in a brooder and side by side run for 4 weeks then put them together. So I separated them again, sectioned off 1/3 for the coop and run after someone told me to wait until they are 12 weeks old. I am going to try to put them together again in 2 weeks and if the pecking order gets to aggressive I am going to single out the ones that are being to mean and separate them for awhile! And if that doesn't work I am going to add on to my run and make it a permanent separation. I was told if they draw blood to remove them immediately because the will keep pecking at the blood. This has been a pain in the bum! So much work. I wish I would have got all my chicks at one time. .
 

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