Introducing Two Groups of Pullets

[PolarBerry]

So I got my first 6 pullets in a 2 week period and they’re now 12-14 weeks of age. I have 6 younger pullets now 6 weeks old.

Older pullets:
Olive egger
Black copper marans (the boss)
2 Black australorp
1 Russian orloff
1 barnevelder

Younger pullets:
2 blue australorp
2 speckled sussex
2 cream legbar mutts

So I’ve got them in a run together but divided by wire down the middle. At first there was fence aggression but after a week it’s mostly ignoring. I made a small door in the fence that the littles could get out into the larger old bird pen and let’s just say the OE/BCM want nothing to do with outsiders.

I’ve added the orloff and barnevelder to the younger pullet side because those two were always most eager to be closer to the young ones and never ever showed any aggression. They’re the bottom of the older pecking order. The Black australorp are groupies to the BCM/OE duo and I’m thinking of assimilating the Black australorps to the younger group later. Maybe?

Do you think this will work? Are my BCM and olive egger just buttholes?

I’ve seen some pecking order type chasing in the older 6 and the occasional peck like “back off” but the BCM and OE chase the younger ones and try to grab them. Like making the littles scream and I have to break it up before blood is drawn.

If they don’t clean up their act I’ll rehome them since at least they’re popular breeds nearing POL...

Any helpful advice for bully hens or is it just a marans thing?

 

[Weehopper]

For what it’s worth..I was having the same problem while trying to introduce four new youngsters into my huge flock of two older hens. One of which is a game hen. I did everything I could to make the intergration as seamless as possible. That game hen was having none of it. She was fine as long as there was wire separating the new girls from her, but once the wire was gone she made it clear she would kill them if I let her. I caught her up and put her in another pen. She can live out her days there, where she can see and talk to the rest, bit can’t get to them.

 

[PolarBerry]

For what it’s worth..I was having the same problem while trying to introduce four new youngsters into my huge flock of two older hens. One of which is a game hen. I did everything I could to make the intergration as seamless as possible. That game hen was having none of it. She was fine as long as there was wire separating the new girls from her, but once the wire was gone she made it clear she would kill them if I let her. I caught her up and put her in another pen. She can live out her days there, where she can see and talk to the rest, bit can’t get to them.

Yeah I don’t have the resources right now to build another pen just to keep 1-2 separately for life. I’m not that overly attached. Unless they want to go live with my turkeys and be shown who’s boss.

 

[Spartan22]

It could be just the individual hens, my 7 black Copper Marans are some of my friendliest hens, now my OE is shy and aloof, maybe check on pinless peepers? They worked great for my leghorn and Wyandottes when I introduce some newbies few years ago.

 

[aart]

How long have they been living side by side 24/7?
How big is this run?
.... and is it bare or have lots of roosts, hiding places, diversions, etc?

 

[PolarBerry]

It’s a temporary chicken tractor of 100sq ft while the coop is being built. Looking into adding an electric poultry pen for more space though. Can’t free range since we have so many predators and my one dog has a high bird prey drive. Have been side by side for a little over 2 weeks.

Fairly bare right now but gets moved frequently for lots of grass/bugs. Husband got unexpectedly sent out of the country for almost a month so it has delayed any actual coop build.

 

[aart]

2 weeks is minimal.....and space is tight.
Should work eventually but you'll need to be patient.

Do they both have coops for shelter and at night?
Might try isolating the 2 bulliest birds for the day and let the chicks interact with the other bigs. Simple circles of fencing like @Redhead Rae uses or dog crates can work.

Hiding places and multiple feed/water stations are important.

 

[PolarBerry]

They don’t have 100% enclosed areas, the young ones have a brooder box on its side and the older ones have a roost. Half the tractor has a roof/partial sides so it’s draft free/dry. Plan was to eventually add larger roosts/cubbies. Life and work have had other plans so trying to make do.

They actually share a nipple waterer that’s up against the dividing wire and will all use it at the same time. I’ve thrown them scratch/mealworms as well and they eat it side by side just fine. I have them on flock raiser crumbles at the moment since I had my turkeys first and made life easier to give one food.

The orloff/barnevelder are still acting very cliquey with the other oldies and while not aggressive at all to the littles, they don’t sleep with them or near them. I hope part of the original clique being divided helps them all to get along. Right now the black australorp are hanging closer to the fence as well than they did before.

I don’t have extra space until my meat birds are butchered in 3 weeks and that gives me a second tractor for the time being and I could probably make a tunnel between the two to double square footage while the coop is being built. The coop will be about 200 sq ft with a dry lot pen/run and a one acre run, but it’s an eventual work in progress. I hadn’t planned on having 2 batches of chicks but the breeds I wanted in the second batch didn’t hatch/arrive alive originally so I ended up with 6 and 6 (and was originally only going for 8-10 total because of the size of the existing tractor).