Introducing new hen to the coop

[jadeflower999]

Quote:
This is exactly what I'm trying to do. I have a 2 1/2 y/o RIR who lost her sister and they had been together since day one. I didn't want her to be lonely and cold at night so I got her 2 friends (Wyandotte and Ameracauna) similar in size and about 9 months old. Well my old hen just hates them. I introduced them at night but that didn't seem to help much. She has been squacking her loudest and chasing them around and pecking them all morning, they are terrified of her. *Sigh.* I've been trying to separate them now but the new ones are to fast to catch. I'll have to wait until dark. I hope they will eventually get along!

 

[lbrtyldy]

I have 37 red sex link hens and 2 roos, pretty good temperments. A few days ago, I added (without giving it too much thought, just a little) 5 new hens. I forgot all about the quarantining so am keeping fingers crossed on that front. There's been some fighting and the new hens staying in the coop when the "old" hens go out into the pen at daybreak and then they get brave and venture into the pen when I let the old ones out to free range in the afternoon. The first night, the old hens did not want to go back into the coop with those new girls. Oh boy.

I have more chicks on order because I am selling out of my eggs and need more but am now reluctant to add them to the existing flock and am wondering if I need to have hubby build a second coop and pen and then let them free range together. Seems like a lot of time and money to do this, but could work out in the long run.

Any feedback would be appreciated!

 

[nicoladawn]

Thank you for this. I have exactly the same difficulty except that I had my new chicken from when she was an egg! She is about ten weeks old now and getting a tough time from my other three hens. I am letting them roam in the garden all day and they are still sleeping separately until she is fully grown. It's wrecking the garden but worth it. If I put her in the run with them they attack her but leave her alone in the garden. I will try and put her in the coop in a couple of weeks one night when they are all asleep and she is bigger - maybe when her voice breaks!

 

[Chicks and Hens]

I have 6 five month old's... 2 americana's 1 Brama 1 rhode island red 1 buff orpington and 1 black sex link... I have a neighbor who has 12 chickens 1 is 1 year old and the rest are two year olds she just got the 1 year old and the Bramas are pining her down and plucking feathers and being awful to her and I felt bad and said I would take her she is a beautiful white hen and she was muddy so we cleaned her. Afterwards we put her in the coop my chicks were not sure about her so they kept their distance. She is really jumpy and I am worried she won't get out of the coop where they lay the eggs. Now she is the only one who can lay eggs so I was wondering if I could quarantine her in there can i?

Any suggestions?

 

[CellarDoorGirl]

We just added two younger hens to our two older hens. We tried the introduce at night. They were fine until the two younger ones, almost three months came down. Now the two older girls, barred rock and sex link, will not let them down. Our coop is a chicken tractor with a small fenced yard. The young ones keep trying but the old biddies just chase them back up. I have food and water up there for them but they really want to come down. It has been almost two weeks now and they are still stuck upstairs. Thinking we may need to add more space that we can block them off into steps rate areas until the little ones get a bit bigger? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Chicks and Hens]

I have 2 older chickens who are stuck in the coop where they lay their eggs and younger ones scream at them like crazy so they stay! I am annoyed with these chickens but one day my Jersey giant that was stuck inside got mad and ran at the younger ones and they left her alone! It was crazy!!!!

and now she is top of the pecking order!

 

[Julic]

I enjoy reading this information. I am new to chickens and have had a RIR and Leghorn for the last 6 months. They have a coop with small run and additional run that we built for them that just slides up against the other small run. Although they have the run, I started letting them free range about 2 months ago and they are doing great. Today my daughter brought me a very young Dominique pullet...sooooo cute! She is so much smaller than the other two and the RIR already tried to have a go at her. I closed her off in the big run as to allow the others ability to get into the coop but they refused to go into the coop with her anywhere near it. That causes problems of course during the day because that is where they lay. Tonight, I had to bribe the RIR to go into the run and it took a while which surprised me because I used one of her favorite scratch treats. (we call it chicken crack). She also was on TOP of the coop which I have never seen her do. The new chick seems to have really freaked her out.
Anyway, I think my plan will be to let the baby free range in the big run during the day and then bring her into a box in the garage at night. Not sure how long to do this though, I am really concerned with the size difference and her getting hurt. Maybe after she gets bigger I can move her into the coop for roosting while the other two are asleep. Not sure, it is a big learning curve but I enjoy them so much.

 

[Julic]

Well my new Dominiquer is growing but she is still very small in comparison to the other two hens. She pretty much stays by herself near the coop but I was happy to see yesterday when I called the two hens, she actually was with them when they came running for treats and they were from far away from the coop on the other side of the house. The RIR has accepted her fully but the Leghorn only tolerates her and still chases after her often. After two weeks the Leghorn still wont let her into the coop to roost. Each evening the baby tries to follow them into the coop and gets chased back out by the Leghorn. I take the Dominique into the garage where I have been keeping her in a box and in the morning I bring her back out again. I have read that people slip them in while the other hens are sleeping but I am afraid that when they wake up the Leghorn will attack her and she will have no where to escape. I also have a small coop and the "slipping in" would be difficult without waking them up I think. I tried it once before and the Leghorn woke up tried to attack her. I was thinking it may have not been late enough for her to be fully asleep. ugh...this is stressful.

 

[nicoladawn]

I had 3 hens and hatched a hen from an egg. She slept in my house until she was about 3 months old and when the weather got warm I sectioned off a part of the run so that the 3 would get used to her. They tolerated her when they were allowed access to the garden but attacked her when she was in 'their' run. After experimenting for a week or two I finally cracked it by putting the hen which was at the bottom of the pecking order of the 3 established hens with my chick in the garden. After a few days they bonded. It also built up the chick's confidence. When the two of them were happy together I gradually let the others join in. It took about 6 weeks in all. Now I have all of them in the run and they are quite happy as a 4. It does take time. I would isolate the domineering one if I were you and let the others bond. If you keep the new one separate it will reinforce her separateness.
Good luck.

 

[Smilin Teri]

im in the same situation right now--guess im off to get crate