Introducing new birds to the flock.

[MikeBarnes]

I have six black copper Marans that I have had since day old chicks (they are now about 3 months old). Five of these are roosters However, I went out a got myself four more hens to even it up and so that the single BCM has company. I got two 9 month old BCM hens and two 9 month old Welsummers hens (all from the same place). I have keep the new birds apart from my original 6 for a few weeks and now am wondering how I should introduce the new females to the mix of 1 female and 5 roosters. The roosters and single hen all get along well at the moment. I am worried that the new hens might create a problem. I am thinking that I should just put them all together and supervise for a while and hope the pecking order settles without too much blood and feathers. I plan to get rid of all the roosters in a month or two once they have gained some more weight. Is it worth keeping them apart until then?

 

[roostersandhens]

Do the intro at night.

 

[lsutigers1809]

I put mine in a run next to my flock fir a week so they'd get use to seeing one and other then integrated them into the flock and supervised it took about an hour to sort out the pecking order and everything has been fine since