New Babies

[labloverx5]

Good morning everyone!
Hope you all had a nice Easter.
We currently have 11 chickens that are almost a year old - 3 Rhode Island Reds, 3 White Leghorns, 3 Barred Rocks, & 2 Gold Hamburg Spanglers.
Next week we are picking up 12 more. We do LOVE our girls. We adding 6 Black Australorps and 6 Buff Orpingtons. We are planning to keep them separated for quite some time but just wondering if at some point we could introduce them perhaps outside to begin with?
Any helpful hints for us?


Thanks and Happy Monday!

 

[pburkardt]

When we added to our flock, we did it at night, when they were roosting. It cut down on sorting out the pecking order a little, but contrary to what we were told, there was still a disturbance in the force. It only took a few days, though.

Following along in this vein, we have 4 grownup chickens and 2 brand spanking new ones. (They hatched Easter day and today, still waiting to see what Egg # 3 is going to do. Should I move the momma hen and the babies to a different area for safety until they are bigger, or is it better to leave them in the same coop?

 

[labloverx5]

Thanks for your response. I appreciate any thoughts that anyone has.

 

[Den in Penn]

A period of introduction through fencing, look but can't touch, works wonders in reducing the amount of fighting when doing introductions. So if you can split your coop for a week or so before letting them actually mingle would work. Or if you can't split the coop a temporary one will work.

Following along in this vein, we have 4 grownup chickens and 2 brand spanking new ones. (They hatched Easter day and today, still waiting to see what Egg # 3 is going to do. Should I move the momma hen and the babies to a different area for safety until they are bigger, or is it better to leave them in the same coop?

I think it is generally a good thing to let the broody raise her chicks in her flock. She protects them and does all the work of introducing them to the rest of the flock. The flock when they first see chicks for the first time are generally curious. But other then maybe a few light pecks, all works out rather quickly. The flock in one of my coops has seen enough chicks that I have seen day olds wandering around well away from momma, and the adults show them no concern. If you have the room and worry you could partition a corner of the coop for mom and the chicks for week that will get the new chicks used to the chicks.