Introducing new birds to the flock

[mommissan]

DianaMallory, I'm so sorry that didn't work out. I can't quite figure out the chicken psychology yet either. I got lucky adding in my roosters. Hens are complex. They remind me of a bunch of teenage girls in high school. Would you be able to place a pen in the coop/run for them to get used to seeing each other for a week or two, before they are allowed to mingle?

 

[CAjerseychick]

You guys are scaring me! My birds-- 3 eight week olds and 15 five week olds have been together for a week in the coop together at night now (free range together during the day- but they still keep to their seperate groupings, the big ones tend to peck occassionally at the little ones to get them out of their way but no big attacks, blood or feather loss-- they had a week of being penned up side by side before free ranging together)-- and now I am afraid I will suddenly wake to find torn up little chicks-- Of the big 3 one is a roo if that makes any difference, not sure yet about the little ones they all pretty much look the same. They are all Jersey Giants which are really slow to mature, so I am hoping that helps with the integration.
OK so now I have neurotically checked on them mid post (the coop is behind the garage underneath our deck ramp)... It looks same as usual- my 3 big chicks are asleep in a huddle in their favorite corner, and right next to them same side of coop is the little 15 -- but they are awake and pecking away at their bowl of bedtime mash (its almost 11pm), silly babies...
Maybe it helps that the 3 big ones started out as 6, and 3 were lost over several weeks (our dog, and our own carelessness) so there was some reshuffling of "flock order" to begin with...Hmmm....

 

[DianaMallory]

Well I have decided that it is going to be brooding again when I add to the flock. The deciding factor was that the new girls where farm raised and my girls were well spoiled is the word I have in mind after seeing how some others are being raised. I noticed the farm raised girls were more skittish than my girls. They were very hard to catch. My girls squat down when I reach for them. I don't have to chase them. Well I placed the new girls in a home that was better than the one they came from. They had just separated their 9 birds and they only ended up with 1 hen and 8 roos. So they welcomed the already laying 5 hens.

 

[DianaMallory]

DianaMallory, I'm so sorry that didn't work out. I can't quite figure out the chicken psychology yet either. I got lucky adding in my roosters. Hens are complex. They remind me of a bunch of teenage girls in high school. Would you be able to place a pen in the coop/run for them to get used to seeing each other for a week or two, before they are allowed to mingle?

Yes but not at this time. I can't possibly ask hubby to get his tools out again. We just did a redo on the coop floor, he finally put a gate on my run, and he said ahh all done with working on the chickens now on to what is next on my list. So other than electric being run to the coop for winter, I don't dare ask him for anything else.

 

[FirewifeJess]

I think this has been a great thread! I have been considering adding birds to my flock because my family needs the eggs big time, we eat 4 dozen eggs a week! We currently have 9 24 week olds, 2 14.5 week olds, and I've been hesitant to add more birds since the last 2 were brought in; they weren't terrorized or anything but people really scared me about biosecurity. While it would be awful to lose my flock to a horrible disease, I've finally decided that I don't want to wait until someone goes broody before getting more egg layers, so I'm finally going to pick up 2 more layers (who are about a year old I think) this weekend. I know they are coming from an extremely clean and disease free place (not that there's not a chance of cross contamination between immune birds of different viruses, etc...) and a well-known BYCer. I don't have a good enough setup to figure out a quarantine area, so when we get home with them at 9pm-ish, I'm going to put the new birds on the roost with everyone and wake up early to sort out any major quarrels. The biosecurity risk is acceptable to me (even though I would be sad to lose birds who all have names and love us back) but we need the eggs!

Thanks again for a great thread that helped me decide what to do when I bring them home!