New chickens

[whispurr]

*I've decided to pass on the adults and just get all chicks. Thank you!*

I have one 8 month old hen one 5 month old rooster, and nine 2 month old. They are all very friendly - I hand raised them. Today I'm supposed to pick up 4 adult hens and 4 chicks. My concern is, when I integrate the new adults will that make my current chickens not be friendly or will the current chickens make the new ones friendly? Anything I need to know about doing this?

Thanks!

 

[Ridgerunner]

So your concern is not about integration but whether the new chickens will affect how friendly your current ones remain toward you and how friendly the new ones will be toward you.

Each flock has its own dynamics. That can change whenever the members of that flock change. I have no idea how yours will change. A lot will depend on how the new chickens were managed, were they trained to be cuddly and such or were they not trained that way. Some will depend on which chickens become dominant. Each case is unique so you'll just have to wait and see. You may need to retrain them.

 

[whispurr]

So your concern is not about integration but whether the new chickens will affect how friendly your current ones remain toward you and how friendly the new ones will be toward you.

Each flock has its own dynamics. That can change whenever the members of that flock change. I have no idea how yours will change. A lot will depend on how the new chickens were managed, were they trained to be cuddly and such or were they not trained that way. Some will depend on which chickens become dominant. Each case is unique so you'll just have to wait and see. You may need to retrain them.

Ok, I'll just add chicks and start a new batch. My reason for wanting more hens is that the older ones are a hen and a rooster. Of my 9 babies, one is supposed to be a rooster. I'd really like to keep both roosters if possible but I know 9 hens isn't enough to keep two happy.

 

[azygous]

If you think humans overreact to strangers coming into their territory, chickens are ten times worse. Their first inclination will be for the home crew to try to drive them away going for the smallest ones first.

You need a barrier so no one gets hurt during the initial period of getting acquainted. They need to see one another and to talk and display their disapproval without anyone actually getting hurt. This will be especially important for the chicks as small size sets them up to be the ones who are abused by the newcomers as well as the larger chickens in the home crew picking out the smallest in the new group.

Once you see they've settled down to just muttering threats under their breath, be sure you provide a lot of space to run from bullies and multiple feeding and watering stations. The small ones especially need things to run behind or hop up onto to evade bullies.

You need to be aware of the danger of importing an avian virus when introducing older chickens and baby chicks from a private source. This is how my flock acquired the avian leucosis virus. Normal quarantining will not guard against this risk since chickens can carry the virus and not be symptomatic.

You're going to discover that expanding a flock with just baby chicks is by far the safest and easiest way. I wish you all the luck in this pending adventure.

 

[bhaugh]

Ok, I'll just add chicks and start a new batch. My reason for wanting more hens is that the older ones are a hen and a rooster. Of my 9 babies, one is supposed to be a rooster. I'd really like to keep both roosters if possible but I know 9 hens isn't enough to keep two happy.

Two roos for nine hens could absolutely be enough it depends on the roosters. I am having a terrible time right now trying to integrate younger birds with older birds. There's always that off chance that the older birds will not take kindly to the younger ones hence my situation. I have two black Copper maran pullets that refuse to share space and it's causing quite a problem for me. The two sets of birds I have are only 2 months apart so if that gives you any indication your babies may be in the same boat as mine when they get older. Do make sure that you quarantine the babies even though they are young as disease is so prevalent in chickens these days.

 

[whispurr]

Thanks! Mine are a bit standoffish but I'm able to have them intermingled without injury. So I think my older chickens and babies are fine together. I have a space to raise chicks that's part of the coop so that makes it easy to care for them and they got to know each other as the chicks grew. My current rooster is happy with his one hen. The new group is supposed to have a rooster too. The grown rooster hasn't shown any aggression toward the chicks, just the hen. I think they've come to an understanding though. Big chickens stay up, in the poop box or on top of the section where I keep their food. Neither of which are sanctioned areas. They are sitting *in* the poop box. They haven't sat on the roosting board yet. The babies stay under the nesting boxes. It'll all work out some way. I just thought it might have a better chance of working if I had a better hen to rooster ratio. We don't really need more hens, 9 egg layers is way more than 2 of us can keep up with. I have no way to sell them either. We're just going to have to eat a lot of eggs!

 

[Mrs. K]

You are basically doubling your flock, so you need double the room. Do you have it? Integrations are hard, and they can be dangerous to less aggressive birds in a too small of place? How old are the chicks, do they have a broody mother, or have they been interrogated into those older birds.

In other words, you have more to worry about than if they will be friendly to you. Do you have hideouts, multiple feed bowls, roosts and other clutter in the run? How much roosting space do you have?

And quarantine options - with that many birds, you are talking about the possibility of considerable loss if either flock has some kind of disease or parasites on them.