Lovin my chickens

I've had chickens for about 8 months now and I am kinda surprised at how much I have grown to love these silly birds. My husband and I and our 3 small children started out with 4 Rhode island red chicks newly hatched. My husband built a beautiful coop with an attached pen but we let them free range for most of the day. They seem the happiest out and about foraging for bugs and eating grass. We sadly lost two of our girls to predators already so I'm much more apprehensive on letting them out all day. I just bought 3 new chicks about 3 weeks old that are RIR hybrids. Wish they were a little smaller when I got them like our first girls cause they are very scary and it's taking a while for them to get used to us. Our two 8 month old girls aren't too fond of the newcomers yet either...afraid it's gonna be a rough transition for everyone when the babies are old enough to live in coop with the big girls. I've read that some people have no trouble introducing new chickens and others have lots of trouble...we'll see how it goes.

 

Thanks...I've been referring to this site for advice about my girls and never realized it had this whole forum and community attached to it...it's nice. I'd love some advice on what to do about a stressed chicken. Our cat had been getting aggressive with my one grown girl and I noticed the other day she was losing some feathers...I thought she may be molting until I found she had a wound on her neck that must be from the cat...needless to say I'm going to have to find a new home for our cat. My girl is still eating and acting normal, laying daily for the most part. Is it just stress that made her lose some feathers? Will she be ok? I cleaned her wound and put antibiotic ointment on it. Has anyone had a similar problem??