Introducing new chickens ...

[ClaireW]

We have 2 adult hens and have recently bought another 2, (now) 10 week old, chicks. We've had the chicks in a small separate cage for 4 weeks and have gradually moved them closer to the adults. That was all going well until one chick escaped from her pen the other day and was attacked. We don't know what happened but all her feathers were pulled out of her back and she has open wounds on her wings. I suspect our dog has played a part in it but we don't know. While I was trying to catch the sick one the other chick pecked at her so we've isolated her in a box inside. She's ok for now and we're putting antiseptic powder on her wounds.

So ... my question is, what do we do next? How can we integrate the sick one and the other chick in with the adult hens? If it's not safe to ever integrate the sick one, should we try and integrate the other chick into the adults by herself? Thank you for your help, Claire

 

[QueenMisha]

You need to allow the injured chick to heal, reintroduce her to the other chick, then introduce them both together. A chick does not do well on it's own.

 

[ClaireW]

Thank you, I'm just worried that it was the other chick who pecked her. When she goes near the pen now, the other chick goes to peck her.

 

[QueenMisha]

Thank you, I'm just worried that it was the other chick who pecked her. When she goes near the pen now, the other chick goes to peck her.

Chicken's natural response to seeing blood is to pick at it. If you can apply Pick-No-More or another anti-pick lotion it will speed the healing process and help prevent cannibalism.

 

[ClaireW]

Thanks so much, I'll get some of that

 

[daskhan]

It's possible it's the other chick too but I agree with queen allow the chick to heal then reintroduce the two chicks and a rule of thumb is unless the chicks were brooded by the hens they need to be 2/3 the size of the others before you introduce but I'd keep the cages farely close so they know each other then maybe let them free range together see how that goes but never unsupervised think of your chicks as your babies and the hens as strangers your just getting to know it'll take a while before they are trust worthy of your baby unless the babies are theirs...

 

[ClaireW]

Will the hurt one need all her feathers back before reintroducing her to the other chick?

 

[Skylercarr]

I had a problem similar to this so originally we got 6 pullets. But two turned out to be roosters so we ordered 2 more hens that were 6 weeks old while our original 6 were about 8 weeks old. When we got the two hens the smaller hen was missing a lot of feathers on her back. So I did some research on what to do and found out I should isolate the bird with missing feathers. I isolated her for two weeks and her feathers were already starting to come back. Then I integrated the two hens at the same time so hopefully they wouldn't get picked on. That worked for me also the bigger hen for some reason was very protective of the smaller one so that might of helped her from getting picked on. I hope this helped!

 

[ClaireW]

Thank you all for your help.

 

[QueenMisha]

Will the hurt one need all her feathers back before reintroducing her to the other chick?

It'll take a pretty long time for the pullet the grow all her feathers back, so I wouldn't call it worth the wait - a good slathering of anti-pick lotion ought to prevent the other chick from picking. I'd wait until at least pin feathers start before introducing them to the adult birds, though.