My chickens are mean!!

[Brahmaman]

I have 2 11 week old pullets and I am trying to introduce them to the big chickens. I have tried putting them in a plastic crate in the coop so the other two older chickens can see them but can not touch them. So i have been doing this for about two weeks and i decided to let them out into the coop and the other chickens just attacked them until one even started to bleed. What should i do?

 

[Pyxis]

The older birds will do that. They're showing their dominance over the younger birds and it can get really rough. Your best bet is going to be to wait to let them all together until the younger birds are just as big as or almost as big as the older birds so that they can properly defend themselves. Otherwise, you might end up with injured or even dead birds if the flock decides to gang up on one.

 

[plm6846]

We ended up with two coops...I just couldn't take it...call me soft but our hens and one roo did fine together free ranging but when night came the battle started and did get bloody. The two hens weren't allowed water or food by the roo and I just put them back into their kennel coop...they free range together but live separately. I feel better any way.

 

[LynsBrat]

We ended up with two coops...I just couldn't take it...call me soft but our hens and one roo did fine together free ranging but when night came the battle started and did get bloody. The two hens weren't allowed water or food by the roo and I just put them back into their kennel coop...they free range together but live separately. I feel better any way.

I'm in the same boat! We just added another run and "mini coop" onto the big girls run with a hole big enough for the "littles" to go back and fourth so they get used to each other but they are safe until they get of adequate size then we may try the old slip on the roost at night trick, one at a time till they are all integrated...good luck to you