Intregation! Once AGAIN! Share your stories please!!

[PepsNick]

Once again my chicken-hoarding instincts are coming out. I live in the center of atlanta and will be going from 5 to 8 chickens pretty soon! aak, ive introduced newbies so many times! it's so hard, especially with leghorns around! can y'all please share your funny intregation stories to make me feel better!! it's actually kinda fun lol

thankz.

egg out!

 

[PepsNick]

anything?

 

[peepacheep]

Have been in the process of doing a slow, very slowwww introduction of 3 Speckled Sussex chicks and re-entry of one injured hen into the flock of 10 hens and 1 rooster. The chicks are about 15 weeks old and doing well when I open the door between the 2 pens. There is a little hierarchy sorting out then everyone is off to dust bathe. The hen has been a big challenge, she had been the top hen and there was a big upset in the pecking order this spring, the flock has not wanted her back. She has been living separately for months, feeding a couple of hours a day around the outside of the pen. This week the hen has been with the chicks in the adjoining pen. Still more sorting out going on between her and the other year old chickens through the fence, will let a few hens in with her and the chicks this evening to see how it goes. Fall rains are on the way, would be really nice to get everyone in the shelter of the big covered pen before the days get seriously wet again.

 

[CheepinChick]

Well I thought it was funny ....but I suspect Diana Ross didn't find it amusing at all....

Our little Black Chabo or Japanese bantam Diana Ross has not taken kindly to the new bantam Welsumer, Beatrix, who joined the flock about six weeks ago. Beatrix along with the other two newbies - a Buff and Light Sussex- were of course picked on by the rest of the flock. Debbie Reynolds and Happy were the worst,Debbie normally a fairly harmless Light Sussex Pekin cross, turning into Chookzilla and Happy the prettiest of bullies, grabbing the others by the scruff of the neck at any opportunity.
Well the Buff and Light Sussex went to love and live with a little 6yo girl leaving Beatrix to cope on her own, and she took to chasing Diana.

Now Diana is a proud almost haughty little gal, fond of climbing as high as possible above the other chooks and bagurking at them madly when they got out of line even though she is half their size, in fact we thought she was the top chook in the flock! She certainly seemd to think so anyway! So imagine her indignation when this upstart newbie starts chasing HER! Lady Di around! Diana running on her short little legs, bagurking madly when Beatrix is anywhere nearby is really funny, and she absolutely refuses to do the chicken equivalent of kow-towing and she aint big enough to fight her so she hides behind the benign hugeness of our black Australorp Vegemite, who roams pretty placidly acting as a chicken shield for Diana.
I have seen Diana running literally in a tight circle when she thought she was cornered by Beatrix near the feed bins - and I was both upset and amused to see it I must admit - but funniest was seeing her watch and wait until Beatrix was happily scoffing grain with her back to Diana and Diana literally dart behind her back to sneak out into the main garden with the others silently & very very quickly!
The happy end to the story is that tonight hubby told me Bea is not only perched alongside the other birds (she used to only get the floor) but she and Diana are perch mates!.

Good luck with your integration...and hope this story gave you a

 

[cjdmashley]

loved the story and their names!!

 

[kylara70]

Okay. I set up a brooder in the hen house to let the chicks and hens be used to each other. Then, when the chicks got too big for the brooder, I moved the little dears into a dog pen with a wire partial cover (still inside the coop). After a week or so, the chicks started flying one by one out of the pen and into the hen house. This week, they all decided to roost with the big girls and the big girls let them. I keep them seperated most of the day still with some free-ranging and some in the run and some in the hen house (depending on the weather). But they integrated themselves. I am SURE some of the chicks are going to get brain damage from the big girls pecking them on the head, but ah well.

Here they are their first night roosting with the big girls on the HIGH roost. I was SURE they would opt for the low, smaller one, at least at first.

 

[pgpoultry]

Naked necks and Brahma boys, first day out.

Went like a dream!

Sandie

 

[Equest94]

I bought a Polish pullet not too long ago... Now, I have a tiny flock that consists of one EE X Silkie and two Red sex-links... all hens.


I slowly introduced the new girl to them, starting with my least dominate hen and after a while added the next, and finally the most dominate hen. The three old girls stayed cooped up in the corner of their run and just stared at her; eyes wide, bodies stiff as boards.... Everytime the Polish girl would start walking around, the other three would sound off in that low "Coowaaaaa-ah-ah-ah" alarm state. They could not figure out for the life of them what that "mop headed" creature was... she really freaked them all out.



Things were really good for a few weeks, but now my least dominate hen is bullying the new girl. Luckily, the other two leave her alone, but since she can't see well due to all those feathers, as soon as she senses one of them near her, she assumes it's the bully and takes off running an screaming. This Polish pullet isn't very vocal compared to the others, but when startled, she yells at the top of her lungs just like a person "AHHHH!" I actually had a concerned neighbor ask if I was alright, lol!



So anyways... still working on ironing out this introduction process. The new girl is terrified of them even though they don't bother her much anymore, so I'm hoping she'll be able to get over it soon.

 

[journey11]

So far in the three years I've been raising chickens, I've always been amazed at how smoothly integrating new birds goes. I like to pen them separately at night, but let them free range together during the day for about 2 weeks before I house them all together.

Well, you know, the grass is always greener...... This year I keep finding a few of my fiesty little 8 week old Black Stars flying over the fence during the day and going in to roost with the older hens at night. I wasn't even ready to integrate them yet, but they seem determined. They are still on developer feed, so I have to go in every night, gather them all up and haul them back over to their own coop! I guess like most kids, they can't wait to grow up!

 

[kingdr85]

Silkies are the easiest to integrate. I just let them loose and shortly after a couple of pecks they figure it out and are buddy buddy the next day. I check them all day to make sure they are not getting peck and make sure there is enough room for them to run away.