Introducing two chickens one-on-one

[TCyardbirds]

Hello BackYardChicken folk!

First of all, let me just thank you all for the wealth of knowledge that my wife and I have so happily looted! This forum has been helpful beyond explanation!

Here is my present issue:
We currently have four Plymouth Barred Rock chickees, 1.5 years old. The city we live in limits the number of chickens a homeowner can have to three, though it hasn't been a problem. A friend (living about 1 mile from us) adopted an orphan chick, about 3-4 months old, that was apparently a stray. Knowing that these birds don't like to be lonesome, we've decided to give one of ours to him. One of our lil ladies is persistently bullied by the others so the decision was unfortunately easy to make.

How should we go about introducing a new chicken to a new flock of 1? I've seen plenty of information about introducing numerous birds or singles to a group, but nothing about a one-on-one introduction.

Can anyone provide any guidance?

 

[crazyegg]

Put one of them in a cage where the two birds can see each other and interact. Leave them that way for several days. Then release both of them together, and watch carefully for any bullying. This is more likely to be a problem when the birds are very different in size.

Good luck!

 

[Bill D]

Your chicken will probably bully the younger chicken

 

[TCyardbirds]

Great - thanks for the input! We'll have to work on temporarily splitting the coop jail cell style for a few days for them - I wouldn't have considered that, thank you!
And yeah, bullying is a concern, but I'm hoping that dominance will be established quickly enough to keep that to a minimum.