Just starting off

[tennilleromaniuk]

Just starting off, built my coop and now I’m getting a bunch of juvenile hens from different people, do I just throw them all in the coop and say get along?
Thx for the help !

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Bringing in birds from multiple sources can quickly turn into a mess. Each place has certain diseases and organisms that chicks build immunity to. Mix that up and you will see sick birds and more risk of more diseases in your flock.

Behaviorally you will cause stress, and fighting putting unknown birds together, which of course will stress their already stressed immune systems. You also could see severe pecking, and potentially dead birds from tossing them together.

Some will say they done this and everything is fine, it can be, but it all can go south too. Just depends on how much you like gambling. I personally would get birds from one source, or order chicks from a hatchery to have a better chance of a good outcome.

 

[123RedBeard]

No.

Can you say "cock fight"?

Maybe you could sell tickets to raise money to buy a new flock ... just kidding (organized/planned cock fighting is illegal)

 

[tennilleromaniuk]

Ok, so if it is not possible to get them all from one source, adding one at a time would work better?

 

[123RedBeard]

No, actually two to three together is best, so they have a "buddy" and for the established hens not to concentrate their energy on just one ...

If I were you ... I'd just get from one source to start out with, even if it means only 2-3 hens ...

 

[aart]

Can you say "cock fight"?

But they are getting only pullets
Tho females can fight just as viciously as males.

Just starting off, built my coop and now I’m getting a bunch of juvenile hens from different people, do I just throw them all in the coop and say get along?
Thx for the help !

Aside from the pest and disease risks.....
Could be great....could be a total disaster.
Putting them all in a 'new to them all' environment all at once might avoid some of the territoriality aspects of integration...or not.

How many birds in how much space, in coop and run(in feet by feet)?

Here's some basic integration tips....ignore the separation aspect in your instance.
Integration Basics:
It's all about territory and resources(space/food/water).
Existing birds will almost always attack new ones to defend their resources.
Understanding chicken behaviors is essential to integrating new birds into your flock.

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact.

In adjacent runs, spread scratch grains along the dividing mesh, best if mesh is just big enough for birds to stick their head thru, so they get used to eating together.

The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no copious blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down and beaten unmercilessly, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide 'out of line of sight'(but not a dead end trap) and/or up and away from any bully birds. Roosts, pallets or boards leaned up against walls or up on concrete blocks, old chairs tables, branches, logs, stumps out in the run can really help. Lots of diversion and places to 'hide' instead of bare wide open run.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Some important considerations are how big are your facilities and how old are the pullets. Are you going to get them all the same day or will that be spread out over several days or weeks? How many will you have?

The more room you have the easier integration normally goes. Tossing them in coop concerns me, not sure how big the coop is or how it is laid out. With a large coop and with them having access to a large run the odds of success go up a lot. One major way chickens handle conflict is that the weaker runs away from the stronger or just avoids them to start with. They need enough room and that room needs to be set up in a way they can run away and avoid. That 4 square feet in the coop plus 10 in the run per chicken can be inadequate when you integrate.

More mature chickens outrank less mature chickens in the pecking order. Some chickens can be pretty vicious in enforcing these pecking order rights, especially with a large difference in maturity level. Sometimes you toss mixed age chickens together and it works out tremendously great. Sometimes you get dead chickens. How much room you have factors into this but so does the personality of the individual chickens.

Each time you add or subtract chickens to or from the flock you upset the pecking order. They have to reset it. In my opinion it is better to get that over with once instead of keeping the flock in constant turmoil.

Chickens are social critters and like to be with other chickens. But if you have chickens at different maturity levels they tend to form sub-flocks. They hang with chickens at their maturity level but avoid chickens at a higher maturity level. To me the worst thing to do is to try to introduce one at a time. As a minimum introduce similar age groups together.

If you can tell us the size of your facilities in feet or meters and numbers and ages of the pullets we might be able to give you specific suggestions. Photos of the coop and run can be really helpful.

It is possible a flock of chickens can develop flock immunities, especially if the chicks grow up with the flock. They may be carriers and able to infect other chickens but never show any symptoms themselves. Coccidiosis is a great example but there can be others. They can even develop resistance to Marek's or other serious diseases. If the flock has a serious disease like that it is likely a competent owner knows it. Not all owners are competent. Not all are ethical enough to tell you if they do know.

The most likely things you are going to introduce are parasites like mites, lice, or worms. Coccidiosis is also a parasite that can be introduced. If treated these are not things that are going to wipe out your flock. If you look for them and treat them they are more of an inconvenience that a serious threat, but if you don't treat them they can become serious.

Another aspect of this is that a flock that has been isolated from other chickens have pretty much been in quarantine, though some of this depends on the competence of the flock owner. If the chickens come from a swap or auction where they have been exposed to strange chickens or if strange chickens have been introduced to those flocks in the last month or so your odds of introducing a serious disease goes up.

You are starting a flock from scratch. You don't have an existing flock to worry about. If I were in your position and the pullets were coming from stable flocks I'd go for it. Of course pay attention and regularly check them for parasites and watch for diseases, but as a responsible flock owner you need to do that anyway. Once you get an established flock they become kind of precious and you might want to be a lot more cautious about adding new chickens, but you have to start somewhere. I think your plan to do that is reasonable.

Good luck!

 

[123RedBeard]

Age, breed, and how many of each could make a difference ...

Space too ... preferably seperated ...

Since you don' currently have any ... it could be possible that you get two groups at the same time ... preferably the same age, and simular temperament ... put up a chicken wire divider down the middle of the coop and run ... after a week or two ... remove the run divider ... see how it goes ...

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Aart, yep I know ... figured they could figure out the drama ... so ... is fighting pullets legal then? JK!

 

[tennilleromaniuk]

Ok thank you for all that feedback.
So instead of getting laying pullets, if I were to get a bunch of 3 month olds, can I put them together right away or no ?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

If they were raised together, otherwise throwing unknown birds together is a disaster.