Integrating my chickens!

[TheHenhouse22]

Hello Everyone! I am new to this website, and have my first thread to ask. So our family had four chickens for about two years. They have a stablished a good life in a huge coop and run for them. They are also free range during the day. Now just a couple of days ago, we just got 2 new polish chickens, each about 3 months old. We are trying to get them to be together, but one of the older chickens has been pecking out feathers of a new polish. We are now keeping them all separated for now until we know what to do. I know that the older chickens have established a pecking order, but how do I introduce the younger ones properly with the older hens? At night, we have been closing off the coop from the run, and keeping the younger inside, and the four older hens out in the run. We live in a pretty warmish area, so right now we aren't afraid of them getting too cold, until the winter. Thank you!

 

[GitaBooks]

Welcome to BYC! So glad you could join!

Introducing chickens can be tough. Polish chickens are naturally more inclined to being bullied, since they can't see as well as other breeds of chickens. Try putting them in a pen near the others for a few weeks, so they can see and hear each-other daily. Then, when they are free ranging, casually let them out and see how well they do together. If they stop fighting, you can eventually introduce the chicks to the roost as well (the roost is the top chickens territory, and so they are more likely to be aggressive in there).
If your Polishes are being bullied, try trimming some of their head feathers. These will grow back during the molt, but this trim will help them during integration.


Best of luck!