Introducing new members to the flock

[Margy1]

We have four 9 week old chickens who have been raised together since day one, we also have another chicken who is probably 20-25 weeks old who is laying. As of right now the older chicken just runs around the yard and does her own thing but she will go to the side of the coop the babies are in and acts like she wants to be in there as well. Some days she will lay on the outside of the fence and the babies will lay on the inside of the fence right next to her, other days the older one will walk around the pen and try to peck at the babies through the fence. We are planning on waiting until the 9 week old's are bigger to put her in there with them, but I know she must be lonely being all alone all day every day.

We found the older chicken one day, she just came strolling up to our house after a big rainstorm (she loves the rain, it can be pouring and she will stand in the middle of the yard getting soaked!) we have no idea if she was ever with another chicken in a pen or if she has been alone her whole life.

So my question is, what behavior should we look for between all 5 chickens to introduce the older one into the pen, and also which should we be more worried about, the four babies going after the one big one, or the bigger one going after the babies.

TIA!!

 

[Judy]

You really should quarantine the new one for a month before exposing her to your flock.

In general, letting them watch and hear each other for a few weeks before putting htem together helps, though every integration is different. The danger would most likely be the older one attacking the smaller ones.

,SEE HERE, especially post #3 and the article linked in post 2.