New addition not settled yet

[Chic Rustler]

Hello all. Just had a question about chicken flock behavior.
Last night i was given a beautiful black austrolarp hen from a friend of a friend who lost the rest of his flock to a dog attack. I brought her home just after dark and set her on a perch in the chicken coop. Soon afterward i found she had moved to a much smaller coop i have fenced off that i keep some 2 month old bantams in.
This morning she was with the rest of the flock but it wasnt pretty. She had a couple of fights and was chased around a few times by the local bully hen. Then the rooster saw a new hen in the run and felt he needed to do his "job" right then. She didnt care for that either.


Today, after work, i put a cover on the small chick run and coop so she could not get in. She is on a perch tonight where she belongs but she is still very stand offish from the other birds, even at treat time.



How long should it take for a new bird to settle in to an established flock?

 

[boskelli1571]

Ideally, she should be quarantined befoe she joins the new flock to ensure she's healthy. Anyway, integration is tough when it's a single bird. I would leave her in a cage by herself but in the main coop or leave her with the bantams for a while. This way everyone can look but not touch. It will likely take at least a week before things settle down. You will need to keep a close eye on her for several weeks. Good luck

 

[Chic Rustler]

Oh....it may be a little late for a quarantine.......

 

[bobbi-j]

It is too late for quarantine, and if you can't do it properly, then really it doesn't matter. You can try the look but don't touch thing - that can help lessen the fighting once they are put together. But there is still likely to be some skirmishes as they get acquainted once they are all together. If there are no injuries with blood shed, I'd probably just let them work it out.

 

[Pork Pie]

Having access to food / water is an issue to consider - multiple feed stations will help. Here's a few links on integration - whether you opt for that or letting her work things out is your call.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/introducing-a-single-hen-to-an-existing-flock

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/introducing-new-chickens-using-the-see-but-don-t-touch-method

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1098683/introducing-new-chickens-to-old-flock#post_16895615

 

[Chic Rustler]

Thank you all for the replies. It seems Dorris has settled in just fine and shes laying.