new chickens a bit fidgety

[tomatron]

hey guys. about a year ago, i bought 6 or so isa browns off my beighbour. they are all doing great now, laying fine, and are big fat healthy girls

. about half a week ago, my dad bought 5 more (same breed), which are quite a bit smaller. the first set we got had their beaks trimmed down before we got em, which seemed a little harsh to me. but now the smaller chickens are here im kinda glad. even when the new additions are trying to find a place to sleep, the older girls relentlessly peck them until they go away.

after letting the first set of chickens we got out to roam free for a bit (still keeping the younger ones closed in, itd be quite a task to get them back in compared to the 'bok bok' that herds the others back almost instantly) i watched the newest set, and they seem REALLY agitated, always running around, and are not quite grazing and scratching around as much as the others do.
none of them are injured at all, and they are all still eating enough, but is there anything i could be doing? how long (on average / if at all) until they stop the bickering?

the coop is easily large enough, and id be pretty stoked living there if i was a chicken. theyve even got their own water tank! lol.

also, my dad got a call from my aunt about a week ago. she found a random white chicken on the side of the road. we were glad to have it finish the dozen. no idea what breed, but i think it was one of the mass produced steroid pumped type chickens, its body just looks a tiny disproportionate in some places and it doesnt seem to walk as much as the others. best bet is it fell out of a truck and didnt get flattened until my aunt got there.

no obvious injuries, seems perfectly fine apart from its wack body size.

at night (at first) it didnt even used to go inside, stayed in the outdoor area and slept there. it doesnt ever seem to even encounter the other chickens so its not being bullied really.

i spent about 20 minutes today making sure it was eating and it seems to be doing ok.

i understand its normal for the newer chickens to not be laying, and perhaps a little agitated, just thought id check if theres anything that could be done to improve things.

will the newest chicken adapt to this wierd new world its been thrown into?

any advice is reallly appreciated.

ps- my grammarz / punctuation is bad, and sorry for being so general with the word 'chicken'. its late where i live and i really should stop drinking on sundays.

 

[silkiechicken]

Welcome!

Fist off, how old are your new additions? You say they are small. Is this because they are still young pullets? If so, they may still need to be on grower type feed so they don't get too much calcium. If they are at least 4 months old, you can probably get away with the layer.

As for introducing new birds, in the future, it is always best to quarantine just in case they bring in something you don't see right away. It can take a few weeks for things to show up and nobody wants to lose their whole flock.

Fighting will be normal and will last a few weeks before the new pecking order is established. Soon enough peace will be restored. Eggs will come when ever the girls reach maturity.

As for the white chicken, it is probably a cornish x meat bird. It is bred using standard selective breeding and no hormones are used in their production. They just got the meat genes in them from their hybrid cross made from two separate meat strains of parents. You'll want to see if you can't keep it on a more restricted diet and be warned that this meat bird type cross bird is probably only 8 weeks old if it fell of a truck and should eat a higher protein grower feed so that it can keep up in growth to it's own legs. There are a few people here with that breed so if you search the meat bird section, you can see their experiences and how they are able to maintain this large bird. They are prone to heart problems so this is to be of consideration if you plan on keeping it for life.

Best of luck!