Introducing chicks to the flock

[DomesticDiva12]

I am not sure this is where to ask? I introduced our 12 week old chicks to our 1 year old adults yesterday. We have 4 adults (all hens) and 3 chicks (one pullet, one roo and one questionable), the chicks are definitely avoiding the hens and the hens are definitely picking at the chicks. I checked this morning and they were all fine but tonight I checked and our pullet chick has a good wound on her head.
Number 1 question, is this normal behavior establishing a new pecking order? Anything I can or should be doing to help?
Number 2, is there anything I should do to the wound or is it better to just leave it heal on its own?

 

[Judy]

Yes, it's normal. The usual rule is, if they just peck, leave them alone, but if they draw blood, remove the injured one. The others will likely peck any open wound further. 12 weeks sounds a bit young to put them with adults; it goes best if they are all the same size. The wound may heal fine on its own. Many people put a little antibiotic ointment or cream on such wounds. Don't use one with a "caine" drug such as benzocaine or cetacaine. Another popular product is BluKote. it is basically gentian violet which is an old timey antisseptic, and tends to discourage the others from pecking a wound. There are other products for this, such as No-Pic. You may have to go with whatever your feed store carries.

Personally I would separate the two groups til the young ones are a bit older, and put some BluKote on the wound, in the hope it would keep the others off the wound. It turns anything it touches purple.

 

[GuppyTJ]

How did you introduce them? I've read extensively on this subject as I'm in the process of introducing 6 new hens (9 weeks old) to my existing flock of 10 (3 hens and 7 roos) that are 11 weeks old. The prevailing advice is to pen the new chicks in the same area as the existing chicks so they can get used to each other through the protection of the fence. The advice is to keep this arrangement in place for at least a week. The idea is that the existing chicks think the new chicks are supposed to be there. They still have to establish their new pecking order once the integration actually happens, but the existing chicks at least think the new chicks have a right to be there since they've been there for quite some time by then. I guess the idea is that the integration is supposed to go more smoothly and with less violence.

Of course, many of the experienced people will tell you that there are no guarantees, no matter how you do it. Sometimes, you can just put them together right off the bat and have no problems. Other times, you can use this more cautious, slow integration and still have problems. There are a bunch of prior threads on this topic on this website so you might (if you haven't already) search for them. I did using terms like "introducing new chicks", stuff like that. There are other suggestions too on those threads, like when you do introduce them, to make SURE they all have loads of space and places to hide so that the picked on ones can get away and hide. Have multiple feeding and water stations. And if you free range (which I do) ideas on how to use that to your advantage.

I did this research because I'm trying an integration right now, my first one. I'll pen my 6 new hens until next Tuesday, which will make it a total of 12 days. My existing 10 chicks free range so they really aren't near the new 6 that often, which is why I'm doing it longer. We'll see how it goes!

Hopefully, something of this is helpful to you.
Guppy

 

[DomesticDiva12]

Unfortunately my pullet was pecked to death last night before I could even check on her this morning. I think it was the other babies because they had blood on their feathers but no wounds. Really bummed, they are pretty big at 12 weeks and I just have nowhere to keep them anymore apart from building a second coop, which I thought about doing today but I couldn't get one up soon enough at this point so we will have to see what happens. I have their seperate food/water from the brooder in the ccoop and the coop is big enough for them all. I had been letting them all free range 'together' the last few weeks hoping that would help. Pretty sad, that pullet was beautiful and the only one of my babies I *knew* was a girl.

 

[aggiemae]

Actually it's not normal for hens to peck chicks until they are injured to establish "pecking order" and as you sadly learned, once a chick is picked on and injured the injury attracts more attacks.

Even though my chicken free range with chicks added from about 8 weeks but I always make sure the chicks have somewhere to hide. I do bring them into the brooder pen at night for a few weeks. Then I put then out into the coop after the hens are sleeping and get them out at first light. I have had to do this for as few as three days and as long as a month depending on how aggressive the hens are and/or how well the chicks handle themselves on the roost.

Since your flocks have to remain together I would suggest then you take the food and water out of the coop at night as it will reduce conflict You should also add a box or bucket for the chicks to take cover in. It will not stop all attacks but it might prevent and will reduce injuries.

 

[Lady Gothic]

I don't understand that, because my chickens would go after it harder, they all like the color purple and peck my toes when I paint them purple......

 

[GuppyTJ]

DomesticDiva,

So very, very sorry to hear about your little pullet. One suggestion that may help you in the future when you're desperate to separate a chicken from the others is to make a "crate" out of 2 laundry baskets. Put one upside down on top of the other and it makes a nice breathable, easy to clean, easy to carry crate. Good size for one full grown chicken. I used packing tape to hold the 2 baskets together. Just an idea.

Still wondering... how did you introduce/integrate them? What was your method? Just wanting to see what you did so others can learn from it. If you did the slow integration/side by side for awhile through the fence method and this is still how it turned out, that says one thing. If you gave them lots of places to hide and extra food/water so they didn't have to compete... again, that just says you did pretty much all the cautious things and it just didn't work out well.

In the spirit of learning, it would be helpful to know how you put the new hens in with the existing flock. We learn from times when things go well and unfortunately, probably we learn more from times when things go poorly.

Thanks,
Guppy

 

[DomesticDiva12]

At the end of May I started bringing the babies out when my adults were free ranging, probably 3-4 times a week, the adults would chase them away if they came too close but no real aggression. This week I put them in the coop together (no seperation though there are places to hide and extra food/water) Tuesday. Wednesday evening I notoced the wound (it didn't look too awful but there was blood, she was a black/white bird so it was hard to see) and by Thursday morning she was gone.
In the future I would think ahead and do some kind of side by side thing. We are in rural Wisconsin so I would pretty much need to make a second coop to protect from predators. Something to think about this summer/fall though at the moment I am thinking I just might skip introductions altogether. We have 6 birds now, which is a good number assuming I don't have 2 roosters (one baby is a definite roo and the other is questionable) I was thinking if I had a hen go broody I would let them hatch a few but even then I think you need a seperate coop/area.
Could this be a sign that both the babies left are roosters. They are fine today, no injuries at all in the coop, I have the big birds free ranging during the day and the babies in the coop to run around and get some food/water without being chased off. They seem to be adjusting pretty well. Will an adult hen leave a young rooster be? or does that not really have any impact?

 

[GuppyTJ]

Thanks for the details, this REALLY helps. As I mentioned, I'm in the process of an integration myself. So I'm trying to learn everything I can. As it turns out, mine "integrated" earlier than I had intended. I go out to the coop yesterday afternoon and all 16 chicks (6 new and 10 existing) are in the coop together in the same area. I'd left the new chicks free to run around inside the entire coop (not confined to their penned in area inside the coop). I accidentally left the pop door unlatched and it must have popped open. All 10 of the older chicks had gone in. So... effectively, the chicks were integrated. I watched them and it was just as you said, Percheron Chick, the bigger chicks chase the younger ones and the younger ones scurry out of the way. So far... (crossing my fingers) there has been no blood, no pulled out feathers, just a bit of squawking.

Could have been a big mistake, leaving the pop door unlatched. I'm glad it turned out OK (again, so far, not counting my chicks until...) I'm glad I did it this way too, confining the new chicks in the coop safely behind the fence but with the older ones. I left up the fencing but it's open. So now, the younger chicks run in there to be separate whenever the big chicks come in. The 6 new ones also sleep on the picnic bench seat I put in there, just like they have this whole past week when they were confined to their little area. They have a separate food and waterer in their little area too, so that helps them not compete for resources. Finally, there are many places to hide in the coop when they get caught outside their little fenced in area. For example, I have 2 hardware cloth covered "screen" doors which swing into the coop. I keep these wide open and they each provide yet another area that the little chicks seem to hide behind quite a bit.

What your experience tells me is that I'm not out of the woods yet. I know it takes 2-3 weeks for the integration to really be done. I need to keep a really close eye on them until then. I've also been getting up with the sun to open up the coop and let them out to free range so they're confined together as little as possible. And I supervise them going to bed each night. I'll do this until the little ones get up on the roost on their own and safely without being overly (more than the normal amount of bickering and jockeying for position) abused on the roost.

Anyway... back to your questions. In terms of a hen going broody, do a few searches on this in this website and there is tons of info on this. I also want to have a broody but I've got time to figure this out so don't know much about this. I have read some and I do NOT think you need a separate coop for your broody hen. However, I don't know how big your coop is or how it's set up so I can't say for sure.

I don't think that what happened to you necessarily signals that your other 2 12 week old chicks are roosters. As I understand it from all my reading, roosters are not mature enough at that age to command much respect from full grown hens. In fact, full grown hens will often (always??) be higher in the pecking order than younger roosters. They could be roosters and were able to defend themselves better than the pullet that was injured and then killed. It's hard to say. Can you post pictures of your 2 remaining 12 week old chicks? I (and others) can gladly try to tell you what sex they are. I'm getting pretty good at it and by 12 weeks of age, it's often easy to tell with many breeds. I don't think you ever said what breeds they are but post some pics and we can give it a shot.

Hope this helps,
Guppy

 

[DomesticDiva12]

I hope your transition goes better than mine. The other two are still doing fine. I keep them in the coop when the hens free range so they get some time to relax. Another thing I would have done in hindsight is have something to put on wounds like the No Pick available, it would have probably saved my pullet since her wound looked okay the last time I checked on her. I plan on getting some next trip to the feed store just in case I need it in the future. Here is a picture from today. They were sold as Easter Eggers which the white one definitely is with his beard...I am almost positive he is a boy. The one I question is the grey one, at almost 13 weeks he/she is def. not as red as any rooster I have had at this age but nothing screams pullet OR rooster to me. I also doubt the grey chick is am easter egger. Hard to tell in the picture but he/she has kind of a mohawk