Introducing new chickens to flock

[Alan_a_dale]

I have a small flock of five hens. I started with eight, but one turned out to be a cockerel, which I re-homed, and two died. My hens are about a year and a half old. I'd like to get a two or three more chickens to replace the one's I lost.

I know introducing new chickens is a process, to ensure they establish a pecking order and be accepted by the older chickens and that they need to be big enough to fend for themselves. Recently, I heard of a different method that sounds feasible but I question it, and wanted to see if the broader community has heard of it.

Here's what I heard... take a brand new chick and place it under a hen that is sitting on her eggs, preferably at night while they are sleeping. The hen will think she hatched the chick and will start caring for it as if it's hers.

I'd hate to try this and find out it's wrong. Anyone else heard of this or tried it themselves?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Califas77]

Hi Alan, I have tried that and it did work. If you don't have a brooding or laying hen, you could put them under warm lights (DON"T us led or fluorescent lights) use the incandescent red lights, then we put a group of newbies when they get feathers in a cage inside the pen or hen house...so they can get acclimated to the rest of the flock for 5 days to a week, then let them go with the rest. We've never had any real problems once the pecking order was established.

All the best!!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Here's what I heard... take a brand new chick and place it under a hen that is sitting on her eggs, preferably at night while they are sleeping. The hen will think she hatched the chick and will start caring for it as if it's hers.

I'd hate to try this and find out it's wrong. Anyone else heard of this or tried it themselves?

That only works when the hen is broody and already sleeping in the nesting box. Broody hens don't poop all night long.

Non broody hens should not be sleeping in the nesting box and should be broke from that behavior.

When there's no broody hen to make the introduction.. most of us use a "look but don't touch set up" for a while that eventually turns into a "panic room" where the little are ranging with the bigs but able to access a feed bowl and escape bully's.

ETA: adding 3 rather than 2 will help spread the pecking around a little more.

ETAA: putting chicks under a non broody hen almost always guarantees disaster.

 

[Ridgerunner]

take a brand new chick and place it under a hen that is sitting on her eggs, preferably at night while they are sleeping. The hen will think she hatched the chick and will start caring for it as if it's hers.

Many of us do that on a regular basis. The chicks need to be very young, preferably three days old or less. The hens are more likely to accept them when they are very young but the chicks also need to accept the hen. If they are too old they may have imprinted on something else.

Sometimes it helps if the hen has been incubating for two or more weeks but some will accept new chicks shortly after they go broody.

I wait until it is really dark, remove the eggs under the hen, and put the chicks in the nest. I sort of cup my hand around the chick to protect it as I put it under the hen. Then check on them at first light to see how it is going.

You are dealing with living animals. Nothing works 100% of the time. I've had extremely good luck doing this but it does not always work. Even hens that hatch the eggs themselves will occasionally not accept the chicks or may even kill them. That is rare but it happens. You have to be prepared to brood them yourself if it doesn't work.

If the hen accepts the chicks and the chicks accept the hen she will raise them like she hatched them. But at some point she will wean them. She will abandon them and force them to raise themselves with the flock. I've had hens wean their chicks as young as three weeks, some wait until after two months to wean them. By then she has handled integration so the others don't try to kill the chicks. But until the pullets mature enough to force their way into the pecking order they form a sub-flock. If they invade the personal space of a mature hen they are likely to get pecked. They very quickly learn to not invade an adult's space. What I see is that they avoid the adults during the day and at night. During the day they are in a different part of the run. At night they do not sleep on the main roosts with the adults but sleep somewhere else. My pullets tend to merge with the main flock about the time they start laying eggs. It's like having two separate flocks that can peacefully coexist as long as the young have enough room to avoid the adults.

A broody hen needs enough room to take care of her chicks. Once she weans them or when I brooder-raise them myself and integrate them they need enough room to avoid the adults until they mature and joint the main flock. How much room do you have in your coop and run? To me how much room you have will go a long way in determining what might work best for you.

 

[Mrs. K]

If you have a broody hen, see Ridge Runner.

If you don't, this is how I do it.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-little-different-way-of-adding-chicks.

Mrs K

 

[Mrs. K]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...t-way-of-adding-chicks.1521710/#post-25629753

If you don't have a broody hen.

Mrs K