Introducing chickens to eachother...

[starforever61]

Hi there! Let me explain...

Ok, so a few weeks ago, we got 4 red stars. They don't really peck anything but their food or scratch, so we were kinda worried. A weeks after we got them, my mom surprised me with 4 new chickens (3 hens and one rooster), and since the original pullets aren't used to being bullyed, they don't fight back. I really don't want this to end badly, but so far, I've already had to put a chicken diaper on one of my red stars

Is there any way I can make this work? Also, I haven't gotten one egg from the new hens that we've had for a week! I hear the egg song once in a while but there really is nowhere for them to hide their eggs from me and I still haven't gotten an egg.

Oh, by the way, the new ones are cochins and bantams, so they look so funny bullying chickens twice their size! So, if you know anything about introducing new flock members, please post it below. Thanks!

 

[twentynine]

Introducing chickens????

Hello Mr White Chicken meet Ms Red Chicken. Or--- Maybe they have an on line dating service that helps busy, shy chickens!!!! cluckcluck.com

Sorry I couldn't resist-------

They will eventually work it out among themselves, I don't really think it has anything to do with size per say. Bantams by and large are pretty active and aggressive.

 

[starforever61]

That made me laugh

thank you

 

[chickenchaser99]

Cochins don't lay alot of eggs

 

[matthewschickens]

I would put the chickens next to each other in cages or you can put one set in the coop and the other in a cage inside the coop.
Then they can meet each other but not hurt each other.
How old are the new hens?

Hope this helps!

Matthew

 

[starforever61]

The new hens are most likely 4 years old, give or take a year. Thanks for the info!

 

[Chooksaurus]

Quote:
Being Cochins, and 4 years old on top of it, I would not have high "egg-spectations" from them.

 

[starforever61]

Quote:
Being Cochins, and 4 years old on top of it, I would not have high "egg-spectations" from them.

But would they really just quit laying like that? They're not molting or anything.

 

[Chooksaurus]

We just added 8 new hens to our flock and out of a total 17 standards, we finally got back up to 12 eggs today. The stress of adding new birds seems to affect everyone, not just the new ones.

On top of that (and I'm not entirely sure that it is related) one of our bantams who was just broody 2 months ago has now gone broody again. The first time she went broody was right after another one did. A different bantam went broody about a week ago, so I think she might just be a copycat. It did coincide with the addition of the other birds, but I can't link it for sure.

 

[starforever61]

I dunno, it might be the issue that our coop is shaded until noon.

Bad design, but in the summer we're getting a chicken tractor so they can get plenty of light.