New hens not allowed in coop, any advice?

[ElaineS]

Hi everyone,

3 days ago I adopted 2 ex battery hens. 2 of my hens died in recent months, so I wanted to get another 2 to bring my total back to 4 hens.

My Bluebell is quite a bully, I was expecting that she would be. She's been occasionally pecking at the new hens during the day, but they free roam my entire garden so they have plenty of space to avoid crowding each other or fighting for food.

The first night, my bluebell pecked the new hens out of the coop, so they slept in my shed instead, the second night there was no pecking at all, and all 4 slept in the coop. Tonight, once again there was pecking and my new hens left the coop, one went into the shed to sleep and the other is sleeping in some bushes behind my compost bins. They're still very nervous so I'm trying to keep handling to a minimum for now.

I know it's still very early days, and the pecking by the top hen is to be expected, but I 'm just wondering at what stage would this normally stop? And if it doesn't, would it be okay if I let the hens chose where they want to sleep? Or should I get a separate coop if necessary?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Kiki]

Did you not choose to quarantine the new girls before introducing them to your current flock?

Could you possible split your current coop in half and let the two different sets of hen live together but not be able to touch each other for a while?
(build a see-thru wall with fencing)

Where do you live....if you are thinking about leaving them out to free range 24/7 you will need to keep in mind the predators will show up.

 

[ElaineS]

Thanks for your reply!

They are all vaccinated, wormed and treated for lice/mites so I did not quarantine.

It's not a huge coop, made to fit 4 hens, but the new girls chose to sleep in the nesting boxes last night, and my other girls roost, so maybe I could split between the nesting boxes and roosting area for now?

I life in a small street in Ireland, the nearest thing to nearby predators are my cats, which don't bother with the hens at all!

 

[Kiki]

Can you post a picture of your coop?

 

[Abriana]

Build a run and separate the two new hens so that the old hens can see them and get used to them but cannot peck them. put them in the coop at night and during the day keep them in the run. This is what i do for new chicks to get them integrated and it works perfectly and they even enjoy it because every time i leave it open it is a chore keeping them out once they are out for good.

 

[ElaineS]

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I don't have pictures of my actual coop but this is the model I bought, hope these pictures are okay!

 

[ElaineS]

Build a run and separate the two new hens so that the old hens can see them and get used to them but cannot peck them. put them in the coop at night and during the day keep them in the run. This is what i do for new chicks to get them integrated and it works perfectly and they even enjoy it because every time i leave it open it is a chore keeping them out once they are out for good.

Thanks for the reply! For the first day I put the new hens in the run, but with my other hens having the whole garden to roam they weren't really near the coop/run, so they didn't really go to look at the newbies very much, then I put them all in the coop at night and my Bluebell pecked until they left!

 

[Abriana]

Thats a very pretty coop.