Introduced new hen to flock, but she keeps hiding

[TreesAndBrees]

Hi all,

I adopted a 5 year old Easter Egger hen and introduced her to my flock of one-year-old hens and rooster at night. But all of my preexisting hens still keep picking on the newbie and causing her to hide. She keeps finding hiding places where the other hens and rooster don't see her.

Will they ever warm up to each other if she keeps hiding and they barely ever get to see her? Should I do anything else, like take away some hiding places, or keep her in a crate among the other chickens so they are forced to see each other but can't pick on her?

Thanks, sorry for the silly question but this is my first time introducing a new chicken. It has only been a few days and I understand they need to do their pecking order stuff but I want them to do it already and stop making the poor new girl hide!

 

[Judy]

I wouldn't try to force them together, and I sure wouldn't tke her hiding places away from her. No doubt she feels safer there, and is likely pecked less. Actually she may stay on the outskirts of the flock for months. I think the main thing is to make sure she is not being shorted on food and water. Have at least two food/water stations, and perhaps even take her aside once or twice a day and feed her a handful under supervision. Be cool about this, though, because the flock can actually get jealous of your attention.

 

[aart]

Ditto Judy's post and......


Here's some notes I've taken on integration that I found to be very helpful.......
......take what applies or might help and ignore the rest.
See if any of them, or the links provided at the bottom, might offer some tips that will assist you in your situation:

Integration of new chickens into flock.

Consider medical quarantine:
BYC Medical Quarantine Article
Poultry Biosecurity
BYC 'medical quarantine' search

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact. Integrating new birds of equal size works best.

For smaller chicks I used a large wire dog crate right in the coop for the smallers. I removed the crate door and put up a piece of wire fencing over the opening and bent up one corner just enough for the smallers to fit thru but the biggers could not. Feed and water inside the crate for the smallers. Make sure the smallers know how to get in and out of the crate opening before exposing them to the olders. this worked out great for me, by the time the crate was too small for the them to roost in there(about 3 weeks), they had pretty much integrated themselves to the olders.

If you have too many smallers to fit in a crate you can partition off part of the coop with a wire wall and make the same openings for smallers escape.


The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide out of line of sight and/or up and away from any bully birds.

Read up on integration..... BYC advanced search>titles only>integration
This is good place to start reading:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock

 

[TreesAndBrees]

Thank you! I've been pretty much doing all that, I just wanted to make sure there was nothing wrong with her hiding all the time. I give her food and water but she refuses to drink around me, so I really hope she has been drinking. I appreciate the help and the links!