New birds integration...UPDATE: DAY 4...free range!!!

[Jeffross1968]

Here are pics of our 5 new girls. 1 Silver laced Wyandotte, 1 EE, 1 Brahma, 1 Speckled Sussex, and 1 Buff Orp....

 

[Sassafras]

Those are some beautiful hens you got. Let us know how the rest of the week goes.

 

[poseygrace]

Wow those are beautiful birds. Glad to hear it's going relatively well.

 

[krcote]

Absolutely gorgeous!

 

[chicktwins]

They are lovely!!

I have 2 week old chicks of those breeds in my brooder right now. I can't wait to see how they turn out. Nice to see pics of what I can hopefully expect mine to look like.

 

[ajay]

I have a friend who put two new chickens with the old timers at night and then spent the next day outside with a spray bottle, spraying any offenders; a similiar approach to you. Worked well for her. Twice.

 

[janf1914]

Looking forward to seeing how this goes for you. We are in the process of trying to incorporate 3 new pullets into our 4-H coop.
They were put in at night just like you did instead of being in a cage for a week. There has been some pecking the past 2 days and the new ones do a lot of hiding in corners, but I'm hoping they will all sort things out.

________________________
Married to a wonderful, handy husband with 3 beautiful daughters and 4 silly chickens - 1 BO, 1 RIR, 1 EE, and 1 GLW.

 

[crtrlovr]

What beautiful, fluffy-puffy girls!

Congratulations!

 

[ChickyLoo]

beautiful girls

 

[Jeffross1968]

Thank you! The first night that they had to get in the coop themselves went well. There was a little pecking and screeching while working out the positioning, even within groups. But after about 15 minutes they all calmed down and went to sleep. This morning I let them out, and except for our extremely skittish brown leghorns, they all calmly filed out and started eating.

I do seem to be having a continuing problem with our 2 unknowns. Because of the aggressiveness, I'm now really starting to think they are roos, even though I know hens can be aggressive in their own right. Today, I'm going to spend a little time using the water gun method, and if that does not calm those two down from their bullying, I'm going to bring the dog cage in the run and sequester them in front of all the other chickens, in the hopes it might knock them down a few pegs. Really interesting to see these two having the worst of the problems, as they were the ones bullied by the little golden sebright roo we just got rid of. Had hoped that one action would remove 90% of all stress prior to introducing the new birds, and it actually did...till we introduced the new birds

By 6:30 this morning they were out in the run feeding, and I started reinforcing the run on the small coop that we have 4 little ones growing up in. After the tornado knocked a tree into it a couple weeks ago, I put it back together with the knowledge that the new coop would be built soon, and it just had to hold together that long. Then we got the babies (guy said 12 weeks old, but I highly doubt it). So after seeing a horrifying thread about some young chickens having their beak/face ripped off by predators, I was barely able to sleep last night. I re-wrapped their little run about 5 times with chicken wire (though I know it's not best). Only need a couple weeks before they will have grown enough for me to start introducing THEM to the rest of the flock. Oh boy, all over again!!! Chickens...