New chickens to established group

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pactricolor

pactricolor

In the Brooder
Jun 13, 2015
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I have 8 hens, 1 rooster, and 1 guinea hen, they are 7 months old and have a wonderful routine. My friend needed an immediate home for 4 (7 months old) that I originally gave her when they were 3 months old and 4 older girls. Predator problems. I have a tree farm and this is the busiest time of year. I have a dog crate in my coop, 6 of them went into that last night with one old girl and one young girl sitting on top. This happened after monitoring for an hour to figure out where to put them. This morning I came and left the 6 out of cage. Well the young one that was on top of cage was amongst mine and already had a bloody comb. I sat in outside coop for awhile, there is a lot of fighting, two of mine have a bloody comb. I put what appears to be a very aggressive older one into the dog kennel inside. However, this is disrupting the quiet time for egg laying in the coop. I know this is not the correct way to introduce new chickens, but I don't have a separate area other than my dog crate, and no time to rig up something now. Any suggestions that would help this transition? How long before they will become friends?
 
Hi :welcome

You could post in the chicken behaivour section, here is the link ~https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/18/chicken-behaviors-and-egglaying
I'm afraid if you don't have a separate area to put these new ones so they see but not touch your exsisting birds they will fight untill they have established a new pecking order. I would advise you do remove the bloody ones as seeing blood can make the problem worse as seeing blood can make them more aggressive.

Wishing you the very best of luck :fl
 
Get the aggressive ones pinless peepers. It prevents them from seeing straight ahead, so their aim is off. They'll probably be more concerned with trying to get them off than pecking at each other. Put 'pinless peepers' in the search box
 
welcome-byc.gif


x2 on Yorkshire coop's comments. Integration takes time and can't be rushed without injuries occurring. Chickens don't appreciate newcomers being dropped in their midst without time to get used to them. Here is a link to a Learning Center article that covers adding new birds to your existing flock, Part 2 discusses flock dynamics:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock

Good luck to you!
 

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