Integrating one new chicken

[Emski239]

Hi guys, was hoping someone might have some advice on integrating our new chicken rescue. We have seven rhode island reds, about ten months old. A few weeks ago we rescued a rhode island red (coincidentally) in our neighborhood, she has been eating, drinking, pooping just fine. But I am having the hardest time integrating her with the flock. She is probably a few months younger than my girls, as she is not laying and is still pretty light. She will not defend herself when the girls attack and either ends up running or getting ganged up on by the older girls. She has been in a decent size run of her own located in our girl's run for the past three weeks. She has also spent a few nights in the coop with the big girls with no issues. We have tried five times to integrate her in, but after the first few hours, my heart cant take anymore of watching her get attacked. No major injuries, I'm just worried about her not defending herself and if she will be able to live with our girls permanently. I refuse to give up on her.

 

[Pork Pie]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/topic-of-the-week-adding-new-chickens-to-the-flock.1164542/


http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/introducing-a-single-hen-to-an-existing-flock

 

[ellenscoop]

Here is a link to an infographic about the various methods of how best to integrate a chicken into your existing flock. I find the effective is short SUPERVISED play sessions a couple times a day, and keeping the newbie in a large dog kennel within their enclosure, so they are able to talk to each other without risk of harm. Here is the link to the infographic - http://www.poultrydvm.com/featured-infographic/caring-for-newly-adopted-chicken

 

[aart]

Try adding one of the other birds to the newbies enclosure, if they don't get along add a different one. Keep trying until you get a 'match'. After a few days add another bird.
And/or put all existing birds into newbies enclosure, let the newbie check out the main coop and run for a day without being harassed. Mix and match for a week then try getting them all together again.
Chicken Juggling!

Dimensions and pics of your set up would help here.