New birds

[bmartin85]

We purchased 3 girls about 4 weeks ago from a breeder well the bug hit us so we purchased 3 more from the same breeder, the older birds are 2 barnvelders and 1 Silver laced wyandotte, the 3 new 1's are red/gold sex links, we put a cage up next to the main coop yesterday to get the girls used to each other and at roost time we placed the new birds in the coop to roost, they fought for a bit then all roosted this morning I woke up to find my 3 older birds on the ground as usual bUT my 3 new girls were still on roost I left them for awhile then came back to find them still on roost late into the morning ( 11 am ) and throughout today they haven't mingled with our other older birds and have stayed in the covered part of the coop while the other older birds are still on the ground, any suggestions or thoughts about this situation would be much appreciated.

 

[Mrs. K]

Introductions and integrations into one flock is hard. Chickens hate strangers. They do get over it, and the trick is to keep everyone alive until they do. . You do need enough space, some hideouts and to supervise, as it is not uncommon for a smaller younger bird to be killed in trying to introduce them. If there is no blood, leave them to work it out

You don't mention the age or size of either group of birds. If the birds are the same size, I would put out an extra feed bowl and waterer, and wait it out.

If the younger birds are much smaller than the older birds, I would create a pen within the run, where the big girls can see but not touch for a couple of weeks. One day is not enough time, and even though they came from the same place, they are strangers to each other. You may have to manually get them down off the roost and put them in the separate pen for a while.

They will probably act like a subflock, within the flock until they begin to lay.

Mrs K