Introducing young chickens to older hens

[boskelli1571]

Are your hens still laying even thou they are on grower/finisher feed? I'm having a problem separating feed.

Yes they are! Mind you, I only feed the grower/finisher for about 8-10 weeks or less. Once the youngsters have reached 20-22 weeks I switch over to layer ration.

 

[stillok]

The chicks are now 6 months old and appear to be fully grown. So, I am feeding them all 15% egg ration. One of the young hens is laying now. I expect the others to start laying anytime now, although the days are rapidly getting shorter and that may delay them. Of the older hens, only one of them is laying. This has been the case for several months and I'm not sure what the problem is. The older hens are a couple of years old, but I think they should still be laying an egg or 2 a week.

 

[minkies]

I just got 3 new girls today that are 14 weeks, I have 2 older ladies that were out free ranging all day but once I put the newbies in the coop they shot over and did the typical stare down all day till I picked them up and put them in coop too. My dominant hen is Soooooo broody right now she just went right to her nesting box , but my speckled Sussex ran around for an hour teaching them who was boss. Tomorrow I will have to remove the older two again so the little ones can relax and explore home. I figure once they are all free ranging the bullying will chill out immensely, better things to do

 

[boskelli1571]

I just got 3 new girls today that are 14 weeks, I have 2 older ladies that were out free ranging all day but once I put the newbies in the coop they shot over and did the typical stare down all day till I picked them up and put them in coop too. My dominant hen is Soooooo broody right now she just went right to her nesting box , but my speckled Sussex ran around for an hour teaching them who was boss. Tomorrow I will have to remove the older two again so the little ones can relax and explore home. I figure once they are all free ranging the bullying will chill out immensely, better things to do

You should really quarantine the new girls before introducing them to the others. They may have disease/parasites that you are not aware of that could be passed to the older hens and cause disease/death within your flock.

 

[handyman42]

We have 3 hens that were our first chickens. They are now 2 years old. We got 8 day-old chicks this spring to help "refresh" our flock. My husband built a small "chicken tractor" for them to live in after they outgrew their brooder pen. They are now 3-4 months old and we have put them in with the old hens. I've not seen many direct confrontations. Nobody has been injured, but the youngsters are totally intimidated by the old girls and want to huddle together in a corner of the coop most of the time. I want them to stay outside because they make such a mess in the coop when they are in there so much. I've taken to shutting the coop door when I'm sure the hens have finished with their egg laying and making the youngsters stay outside. I've posted a picture of the typical reaction when one of the hens comes around to them. Is this just something I have to let them work out or do we need to put the youngsters back in the chicken tractor for a few weeks?

I just added this years batch of chicks, that range in age from 4-6 months, to my existing flock, The first thing I did was put them in a dog kennel right outside the open wire side of the coop where everyone could see each other and get to know everybody. After about a week and a half I put em in there and seems as though I haven't had any problems. And there are 6 cockerels in that bunch as well.

 

[GGBEAR]

oh God I can't believe what bullys these lovely feathered creatures are I have introduced 2 younger birds to the flock and they were horrid to them it was awful having to let them sort it out, they would chase them peck them. They used to hide in the corner or take salvation with my dog lol

 

[cjpines]

oh God I can't believe what bullys these lovely feathered creatures are I have introduced 2 younger birds to the flock and they were horrid to them it was awful having to let them sort it out, they would chase them peck them. They used to hide in the corner or take salvation with my dog lol

 

[LittleRedCoop53]

Quote: How long did you keep them separated before introduction? I have 3 newbies that I've separated for 3 wks now and still afraid to combine them with our other older 4.
I just introduced 3 newbies to 4 older hens after one week of being together with a fence in between ...I figured, with the older girls starting to molt, it might go smoother and it has so far. The older hens just want to be left alone, leaving the newbies to explore their new surroundings... so we'll see how feisty they get later.