susanstowell
In the Brooder
- Jun 28, 2018
- 3
- 13
- 21
How can I introduce 2 new babies to my 2 older girls? It did get bloody when the new chix escaped into the other territory. They are 3 months old.
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
I would recommend waiting till the chicks are at or near adult size to introduce them. When you introduce them put the two youngsters in a cage by the old girls, make sure they can see each other. Let them get used to each other for a day or two and then let the youngsters out, watch to make sure they are not brutally beaten up. I am not very experienced with introducing young birds to old birds on such a small scale so I am not that helpful with this question.
Get them caged where they can see each other on a constant basis, and give them a couple weeks to get comfortable with each other. I don't think they need to be adults. My Serama chicks are tiny, at about five weeks old. They've been in the run in a flight cage for the past two weeks, with supervised time several times a day over the past week out in the run, where I could break up any aggression toward them before it got started. Today was their first day all alone in the run, and none of the other birds have so much as turned a feather over it - except that they ALL wanted to go in the flight cage and perch on the tiny chick perches, wobbling back and forth smugly, while the chicks investigated the Big Bird coop and tried the roost on for size - just as smugly. I'm still keeping a close eye on them from out of sight, and they'll be separated at night - chicks in a closing large nest box inside the coop - but there hasn't been any incident to intervene with. Giving them time to get used to each other and playing 'mama hen' if they need protection makes a big difference, in my - albeit limited - personal experience. I used a long horse lunge whip. Not to hit anyone - just to deliver some quick pecks (pokes) with the tip if anyone seemed aggressive to the chicks, during 'happy hour', aka mingling time.
Won't guarantee this will work, but it has so far for me, with both the EE's I added - after quarantine - and the Serama chicks I hatched. Fingers crossed it keeps working for me.