integrating new flock members!

[ChitownChick]

I have three adult hens (I had a bad year and lost some) and am integrating 4 new pullets.

Integrating new flock members is always a turbulent time, but one of my year-old hens is being especially spiteful and brutal, attacking my 7-week pullets with extreme vigor. I'm afraid she might cause real damage. It's very interesting because she is at the bottom of the adult pecking order, and when I integrated her in last year was the most picked on--so I guess she is the most threatened by newcomers. I love how these moments reveal the psychology of the birds...but I digress....

I'm thinking of isolating the bully (Violent Violet) and letting her rejoin the flock in a few days. Any other tips?

 

[Cyprus]

Not sure if this is what you're asking/looking for, but my smoothest integration to ever happen was done during the day while everybody was free-ranging. I simply let the old girls out as I normally do and stuck the new girls out with them. A little hen-pecking but it ended in a few minutes. After that, everyone minded their own business. At night, the newbies followed the older girls into their coop. No issues from here on out.

This is easiest for me because they sort themselves out in the span of one day.

 

[ChickenGirl555]

I would say put a dog cage or something in the coop, and lock the bully in it. Keep her in sight of the flock so she doesn't have to be re-integrated, but let the newcomers integrate without her being able to harm them. By the time they are integrated, the bully will have to work up her status again and maybe the newcomers will even be higher than her.