My older hens will not accept my new ones into flock.

[wabell391]

Recently I bought two bantams and a hawk killed one a few days ago so now she is all alone and the older hens are soo mean. I had to have separate coops and yards before but will they ever accept her. The lone chick is 14 weeks old and calls for her sister all day...

 

[Elite Silkies]

Put her cage next to the others cage, so they can near her, but not close enough to hurt her. They'll eventually get use to her.

 

[Ms. Cluckingly]

That is so sad.

Poor chicken must be so unhappy.

 

[ruby]

my new chicks are separated, the live in their own pen for months before I introduce them to the older girls. They can see each other and talk before they can peck or fight. You might want to introduce one hen that's nice. see if you can get her some company. But you will have to watch closely.

 

[cmom]

Can you get her a friend? My older birds and younger ones now live in harmony but they had to sort things out. I tried putting my younger ones in with my older birds when the hens were over a year old and the pullets were 14 weeks old. I took them out for another month but kept them side by side so they could see and hear each other. When I did reintegrate them I had two hens that were bullies so I removed the bullies and let the rest of the flock sort out their pecking order. After a couple of weeks I put the bullies back in with the flock. I had one who was still a bully. When I caught her on and wailing away at a pullet, I had a hose handy and gave her a good blast of water. It surprised her so because she was so intent on the pullet. She ran into the coop and didn't come out for awhile. I caught her a few more times after that and surprised her with more squirts with the hose. She finally calmed down. Maybe she was tired of being squirted.

 

[wabell391]

Thank you for all your advice I will try what you suggest

 

[justmeandtheflock]

Awe, poor chicky

I put 31 5 week olds in with 6 14 week olds and it was a good month before they became 1 flock. No one was losing feathers or bleeding so I let them work it out on their own but there was a lot of screaming and chasing for a while. Good luck!

 

[richje100]

hi, i bought bumper bits for mine.
i started with 4 hens, then bought another 3. 2 RIR's & a white one(forgot the name). they all picked on the white one. i couldnt stand to watch as they wouldnt let her feed or drink. i applied the bits to the 6 hens & left them alone for a week. hey presto, they all get on like a house on fire.
i wasnt in a position to divide the coop/run so had to use these.
good luck