Introducing new chickens

[mstee]

I have 5 almost full grown wyandotte hens, and 6 barred rock hens that are 11 weeks old. The barred rocks are starting to get pretty large, and I was wondering if you all thought if I can put them together. Currently the barred rocks are living in a small coop that is inside the very large coop the wyandottes live in, so they see each other daily.
I'm new to owning chickens, and didn't do enough research about integrating chicks and we lost a Wyandotte to my isa brown hens (they have a separate coop). I would like to avoid that.
Thanks

 

[DeepDishChix]

Try this link:https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/introducing-new-chickens-using-the-see-but-don-t-touch-method. I hope this helps!

 

[mstee]

Thanks!

 

[tcstoehr]

Try this link:https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/introducing-new-chickens-using-the-see-but-don-t-touch-method. I hope this helps!

Scary. The takeaway from this article is that no matter what you do the older chickens will attempt to kill the younger ones. If physical assault fails, then depriving them of food and water will also be tried. The only hope is that the attempted murder is postponed long enough for them to get used to each other.
I'll be introducing 2 new chicks to an established flock of 3 next year. Not looking forward to it.

 

[bobbi-j]

Scary. The takeaway from this article is that no matter what you do the older chickens will attempt to kill the younger ones. If physical assault fails, then depriving them of food and water will also be tried. The only hope is that the attempted murder is postponed long enough for them to get used to each other.
I'll be introducing 2 new chicks to an established flock of 3 next year. Not looking forward to it.

Chickens are very territorial. If you put in birds close to the same size as the others, they stand a better chance. Much of the kerfluffle is about establishing pecking order. Once that's figured out, they generally settle down. You can make it easier on the new birds by adding more feeding and watering stations, and giving them places to hide. Find BYC user "aart', and look at the sig. line for a link on integration. One thing you don't want to do, and that's try to add babies to an adult flock. Unless, of course, you have a broody and she either hatches out some chicks (or has unknowingly "adopted" some). Chickens don't have much of a maternal instinct unless they have been broody.

 

[aart]

Quote: That is just one persons take on the situation...there are many possibilities(some of them decidedly unpleasant) during integration, and many ways to deal with them.


Here's my take and some links for more info.....read thru lots of scenarios before deciding what route you will take for integration.

Here's some notes I've taken on integration that I found to be very helpful.......
......take what applies or might help and ignore the rest.
See if any of them, or the links provided at the bottom, might offer some tips that will assist you in your situation:

Integration of new chickens into flock.

Consider medical quarantine:
BYC Medical Quarantine Article
Poultry Biosecurity
BYC 'medical quarantine' search

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact. Integrating new birds of equal size works best.

For smaller chicks I used a large wire dog crate right in the coop for the smallers. I removed the crate door and put up a piece of wire fencing over the opening and bent up one corner just enough for the smallers to fit thru but the biggers could not. Feed and water inside the crate for the smallers. Make sure the smallers know how to get in and out of the crate opening before exposing them to the olders. this worked out great for me, by the time the crate was too small for the them to roost in there(about 3 weeks), they had pretty much integrated themselves to the olders.

If you have too many smallers to fit in a crate you can partition off part of the coop with a wire wall and make the same openings for smallers escape.


The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide out of line of sight and/or up and away from any bully birds.

In adjacent runs, spread scratch grains along the dividing mesh, best of mesh is just big enough for birds to stick their head thru, so they get used to eating together.

Another option, if possible, is to put all birds in a new coop and run, this takes the territoriality issues away.

Read up on integration..... BYC advanced search>titles only>integration
This is good place to start reading:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock