Mixing in new chickens

[Hippie homesteader]

Hi folks I'm looking for a little help. I have 7 4 year old hens and I just got 12 new chickens. The new birds don't want to go into the house at night because the old chickens peck at them. I put a new pen in the chicken yard for them but they dont go in at night they go on top. Any ideas on getting them to go in at night

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.
You may want to post your questions in the Managing Your Flock forum.
Include pictures of your setup along with dimensions of your coop and run in feet x feet.

 

[N F C]

Good suggestion from @DobieLover. Did you give all the birds a chance to grow used to seeing each other before trying to put them together? An existing flock won't automatically be good with "interlopers" invading their territory. Integrating new birds into a flock takes time.

Best of luck!

 

[Hippie homesteader]

Sorry about that I thought I was in managing your flock I'm not very good with this stuff. The original house is on a tractor but it's now sitting in a pen ( long story) . The dimensions are 6ft long 5ft wide and 4ft tall. I figured it was a bit small with the new chickens so I moved a dog pen ( 8x8) into the yard ,put some roosting bars in there and figured I would train the new chickens to that but they Insist on getting on top at night

 

[007Sean]

Howdy and Welcome to Backyard Chickens.

Happy to have you here with us. Enjoy your time here at BYC!

Thanks for joining our community!

 

[drumstick diva]

Welcome to Backyard Chickens, the pulse beat of the chicken community.

 

[BlueBaby]

Hello, and welcome! Glad that you joined! Maybe you could pick up the young ones and put them in where you want them to be at for the night?

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi and welcome to BYC. Check out these links -
Coop guide

Space requirements

Flock integration

 

[DobieLover]

Pictures will really help here.
To successfully integrate new birds into your flock, you need lots of extra feed/water locations, plenty of roosting space, a large area for them to intermingle with lots of places for the lower ranking birds to hide and lots of TIME.
I think your run, even with the extension, sounds a bit small.
I do not advise locking the newcomers in with the original flock. That is a pretty good way to get someone injured. They will intermingle when they are ready to do so.

 

[Mrs. K]

Try taping a piece of cardboard so that your roost is split, a little wall dividing the roost into two parts. Then after dark, as they will be easy to handle, go down and take them off where you don't want them and place them where you do, putting the old birds on one side, the new on the other.

Also put something difficult to roost on, on top of where you don't want them to roost.

Another piece of information would be the age of the new birds.

Glad you are here.

Mrs k