I acquired 3 new adult RIRs and tried to introduce them to my existing flock today. Pony, the dominant girl of my existing flock promptly started a fight with the biggest RIR of the new girls. However, Pony is a rescue from a commercial hatchery so she has a cut beak. Needless to say, she got the bejezzus kicked out of her, but she wouldn't back down. I know they have to work this stuff out on their own, but she was bleeding pretty good so I separated them after just a few minutes. I have another cut beak resuce that started to get into a fight, too and also ended up bleeding. I also have two silkies who stayed away from them, but they wouldn't stand a chance. The new girls are actually very tame and sweet. I knew I should have waited until night time to introduce. Grrrr...my mistake. Anyway, I separated the new girls into a dog kennel for the night, and put the kennel into the coop with the other girls so they could all see each other and "sleep" together, but not be able to get to each other. My Questions: 1) How long should I wait before I try to integrate again? 2) Should I do it at night? I'm afraid to leave them alone together without my supervision. 3) When they are fighting and they are bleeding, should I stop them? If so, WHEN should I stop them? 4) How long should I expect the fighting to continue? 5) Is there a possibility that they would kill each other? I would be very sad. I have successfully integrated on two other occasions without much incident, so this was quite a surprise. I've never had blood before, but I always did it at night. Thanks, guys for your advice.
i had around 9 chickens and brought 7 hens 3 RIR 1 mutt and 3 bantams in put them in a pen and left them in there for maybe a day i guess after starring at eachother long enough they got used to the idea but when i let them out with the flock they still got picked on its been a lil over 2 weeks now and they still are social outcasts sometimes i think you jsut need to let them work it out supervised at first and then trust them ... im the mother hen in my flock so i need to heed my own advise jsut thought id tell you bout my experience lol
Thanks, MaHen. I'll just let them out together today while I can see them and supervise. Otherwise, I just let them work it out.
Before you introduce the new girls directly into the coop/pen with the established flock you should try to separate them for a few days to get to know each other (this is, of course, after 30 day quarantine). When I added to my flock last year, the new kids had their own coop and were basically a flock unto themselves and original girls only ran into them while out foraging -- there were a few squabbles over who got to eat from which pile of scratch first, but nothing serious.
