Introducing pullets to broody hen

[PhoenixPharm]

I have a large buff orph and a silkie together and I have five 9 week old silkies that I tried to introduce to them. The buff pecked the one really hard and feathers flew everywhere ....the silkie was fine with them but I separated them right away. They have been able to see each other through the fence for a week but now the buff is broody. I was wondering if this would be a good time to try and add them in again since she is busy sitting on eggs...maybe she won't bother with the new ones?

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Honestly, you should have let the initial integration run it's course. What you saw was normal behavior that occurs when introducing birds and it does not read from your description like it had gotten to the point where intervention was actually necessary. Until/unless serious injury occurs it is better to allow them to get the process out of the way once, vs separating and then ending up prolonging/repeating the whole mess.

This could go a couple of ways - it could be as you are thinking and the distraction of her broodiness would help distract her from the usual integration behaviors that can occur, but it could also be that the introduction of the new birds would be a significant enough stressor that she could abandon her nest/brooding duties. Are you hoping for a successful hatch for the eggs she is on?

 

[scflock]

Honestly, you should have let the initial integration run it's course. What you saw was normal behavior that occurs when introducing birds and it does not read from your description like it had gotten to the point where intervention was actually necessary. Until/unless serious injury occurs it is better to allow them to get the process out of the way once, vs separating and then ending up prolonging/repeating the whole mess.

This could go a couple of ways - it could be as you are thinking and the distraction of her broodiness would help distract her from the usual integration behaviors that can occur, but it could also be that the introduction of the new birds would be a significant enough stressor that she could abandon her nest/brooding duties. Are you hoping for a successful hatch for the eggs she is on?

Xs2
The things you have going for you are the new ones are big enough to get away, but too small to get into a full fledged fight. The BO is just letting them know who is boss. The new ones also outnumber the big ones, so that will help keep the big ones from bullying one or two small ones. There's going to be pecking, there's no avoiding it, but you will have to let them settle it. Like Mare said, unless there is significant injury, let it run it's course. It has to happen.
I didn't think about her abandoning the eggs, but her aggression would be much worse if she already had chicks on the ground

 

[PhoenixPharm]

She was sitting on unfert eggs, so I just gave her 2 fert ones to hatch. It doesn't matter to me if she sits on them or not. Thanks for the advice, I think I'll just try and put them back in with her.