Introducing chicken to flock

[Chickenlover7711]

My friend had to get rid of one of his chickens so i took her in she is about 5months almost ready to lay. The rest of my flock is 6 hens about a year old, my new chicken is about the same size of them a little smaller. But they r pecking her in a corner and i dont know if i need to seperate her or let it play out. Also, im worried she needs water cause she has her beck open and its 95 degrees out! HELP PLEASE

 

[mrsp523]

can you seperate her in a crate in the coop for a few days while they get familiar with her? Give her her own food and water. with my young ones I would rig up a section of the coop with chicken wire for the new ones to stay in, and then let them free range but seperate at night. Also it is suggested to keep her seperate for a stretch of time to insure she doesnt pass anything on to the other chickens. Good luck, keep us posted! I do know it can be awful to watch when the new ones come in.

 

[Chickenlover7711]

Ok thanks that is what i did i made her a space so she wont get pecked to death. how long usually does it take for them to relax.

 

[dianaross77]

I would take the hen that is the lowest in the pecking order and put it in with the new one. Then after a couple days to a week put both of them back in with the rest. It's just too had to put a lone chicken into an established flock. This way, there will be 2 new kids instead of one. And they'll pick on both of them and they'll each get a break.

 

[70monte]

They may never accept her. I have RIR's that I bought at the same time about 2 years ago. I originally had six hens and a rooster. Two of the hens have died during this time. About 2 months or more ago, one of my hens started getting beat up by the other hens and the rooster. I seperated her for awhile but when I got a few baby chicks, she had to go back with the older chickens because she didn't like the chicks and pecked them.

To this day, the hen still gets picked on even though the chickens have a large fenced in area to roam. I don't think they will ever accept her back into the flock. I'm thinking of getting some more hens but don't know how it will all play out. I'm worried that the current hens will beat up any newcomers.

good luck.

Wayne

 

[Jeffross1968]

I'm going to deal with the same thing tonight. I really have no way to sequester them, but I'm going to introduce them at night. I have a current flock of 4 10 or 12 week olds in my small coop that I got a couple days ago. In my new, larger coop, we have what is probably a 2nd year layer Barred Rock, 3 less than 1 year old brown leghorns, and a couple somethings probably 5 or so months old (they haven't revealed themselves as roo or hen yet). Tonight, I'll be getting an EE, Sussex, Buff Orp, and silver laced Wyandotte, all about 5 months old, 2 of them just started laying. I'll be getting back just after dark, and adding them to the big coop. The existing ones have all been together now for 6 weeks or so, and the new ones have all been raised together since chicks. Hopefully I'm not going to have a chicken version of the crips and bloods going on tonight

I've read a lot about introducing new chickens, but either I build yet another coop (isn't going to happen) or resign myself to a smaller flock, or take my chances. Going to be interesting. I've talked to a few neighbors who own chickens, who have been constantly rotating birds in and out of their flocks for years without problems. I think after getting rid of my little problem child rooster a few days ago, there is a greater chance of an easy time of it.

 

[Jeffross1968]

Just a quick update...we got home around 10pm with 5 new chickens, and put them in the coop with our existing 6. Because it was dark and they were roosting, it went VERY well. The new ones took about 2 minutes to get up on roosts themselves, and everyone went to sleep. Tomorrow will be the real test...

 

[pdoyle23323]

what happened next? Looking to add to my 3 PBR's (all hens) and really do not want to build another coop.