Introducing my new chicks to my hens?

[emilyschartz21]

Ok good to know I have a lot of space here! Are your chicks extremely active?

 

[cherylm416]

Hi, I am having some trouble myself that fits this and hope to find help as well. I did everything I thought I was supposed to do in introducing my three new chicks to my two hens that are a year and some. For a few days I would only introduce them in the yard where they could run away. After about a week of that, I moved my three chicks (about 10 weeks) into the coop/attached run. My two older hens are Americanas. My new chicks are two barred rocks and a comet. The Americanas always chase the chicks behind the shed and will barely let them on the other side to feed. It has been three weeks now and I'm concerned the older hens will never accept the chicks and hurt them as they do peck. And I worry they'll be stressed. Any advice is appreciated, thank you.

Cheryl

 

[Yukonn15]

I would heed the advice of blucoondawg. Wait until they are bigger. I have three old hens and will be getting six chicks in the mail on Monday. My old girls are not overly aggressive but I don't trust them at all. They are chickens. If your coop is big enough you might try to divide it some how. I can walk in my coop, so I'm either going to divde it for awhile so they are close to each other but can't touch. Or some kind of cage for the babies. We once had to introduce a chicken from another flock to ours and had the new girl in a cage and just kept moving her in closer, then moved the cage inside the coop, then after about three to four weeks put them together. When we first let the new girl free it was free ranging so there was plenty of room. We did have a few scuffles. But new girl stood her ground. After that no problems. Just a side note. We solved a bully problem also by caging the bully for three days in the lowest position possible in the coop. On the floor and she came out a much more cooperative hen after that.