new girls to old girls

[kdunton]

I have 6, 18-month hens, and I am introducing 4, 17 weeks of hens soon what is the best way to do this. They have been living next to each other for 7 weeks now. The two coops are kept apart by a wall of chicken wire.
thanks Kat

 

[RWise]

Are they going in the same coop? Is there enuf room in the coop and run? Free range?
Once they have seen each other, and some time to make sure they are healthy. I put mine in the coop at night, and watch the next morning. There will be some pecking, the little ones will find very fast who to avoid and who they can be near.

 

[TheTwoRoos]

Depends on how they all react,younger hens depending on how young,aren’t gonna fight usually.I just added some pullets who are about four or five months,possibly six.They had two small fights and later that day added them to flock,no issues.Where as if your adding grown hens,things are gonna take longer,and be more difficult.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It would help to know what your facilities look like a bit better and especially how big your coops and runs are in feet. How are they connected? Do you free range or are they confined to runs? How much roost space do they have in the main coop? Is there a gate between the two runs? When do you let them out of the coop into the run in the mornings? A photo could help a lot to understanding what you have to work with.

It's hard to get specific without knowing a lot of that but I'd open the area up so they can mingle but also let the young ones go back to their own sleeping place at night. That may mean putting a gate in that wire that separates them or just removing it. Have different feeding and watering stations so they don't have to confront the older ones to eat and drink. I'd open the outside area up to both of them sometime when I can be around to observe, maybe a Saturday morning. Just open it up but don't force them to be together any more than you have to. As much as you can, let them work it out.

At that age your pullets are probably not laying yet but may fairly soon. It's time to try to get hem together so the older hens can show them where to lay. But until they start to lay the older hens are more mature than them. The pullets will likely be afraid of the older ones as the more mature outrank them in the pecking order and are likely to peck them when they invade their personal space. Generally the pullets will form a separate sub-flock and avoid the older as much as they can. That's why how much space you have and how it is arranged is so important. They need the room to run away when there is a conflict and enough room to avoid the mature hens in the first place.

One risk you have is that one of the mature hens should be called Attila the Hen. Some hens can be absolutely brutal to immature chickens and will hunt them out to do damage to them. Those hens are pretty rare if you have a lot of space but the tighter the space the more likely you are to experience one of those. When you are integrating room is very important.

The place mine are most brutal to the others is when they are settling on the roosts at night. The more dominant ones get to sleep wherever they want and aren't slow to enforce those pecking order rights. With immature pullets it's often a fairly low ranking hen that will be the brutal one, as if she is protecting her limited status. The pullets usually will not sleep on the roosts with the mature hens until they mature enough to force their way into the pecking order. That's usually about the time they start to lay. That's why I suggest you give them the option to go back to their old sleeping place at night.

Many of us regularly integrate chicks as young as 3 to 5 weeks with the flock with no issues, but you'll find that we tend to raise the chicks right next to the flock from a very young age so they kind of grow up with the flock. We also tend to have a lot more room that that 4 square feet in the coop with 10 in the run per chicken you often read about on here. If space is tight integration can be challenging. With adequate room it's usually not a big deal.

Good luck!

 

[kdunton]

Thank you for all your help. I will let you know how it goes. I am going to wait another week. ;-)