NEWBIE Questions. New Chick Introduced.....need some advice and/or answers

[esmeador]

Here's the situation. We are newbies to the chicken thing, and have a small flock of hens (4 marans and 2 polish) and one rooster (polish) that are 5 months old. My daughters bought mom 2 Cochin chicks for Mother's Day, one of which turned out to be a cockerell and was sold to a friend. The remaining pullet is now a little over 12 wks old, and it was time to put her in the run/coop w/ the others. We put her in a small pen inside the run by herself for a few days, a few hours each day to acclimate. A couple of days ago, we released her into the general population and let the games begin. From what Ive read on these posts, typical pecking order rituals began....some a little more violent than others, but no blood yet. That night, the new chick went into the coop w/ the others to roost, and it seemed peaceful enough. The problem now is, since inside the coop is the only place where she doesn't get attacked, she WILL NOT leave the coop at all....even for food and water. This has gone on for a couple of days now, and we're getting a little concerned. We have placed dishes of water and food in the coop a couple of times a day (it's very hot and humid here), but dont want everyone to start expecting room service.....the main food and water are suspended under the coop in the shade.
Is this normal? Should we be worried? Is there something else we should be doing/not doing?

Like I said.....NEWBIE....confused.

Thnks

 

[Tommy12241]

Sounds like she is scared. Just take her out and put her in that little pen for a little while each morning. That way she can acclimate to being with the others without being scared. So keep up the isolation Let me know if you have any questions regarding this or anything else. Good luck with your chickens. They are wonderful things to own.

 

[real_redhead]

I think this is one of the hard parts of owning chickens is when they redefine the pecking order! I am in the process of getting mine all introduced and sometimes it isn't very fun. The oldest chicken is 1 yr 2 months, then I have 3 that are about 4 months old and 7 that are almost 2 months old. The oldest one is at the top of the pecking order and mostly leaves the 4 month olds alone except at night in the coop, she goes after them. I have been slowly letting the 4 month olds hang out with the 2 month olds but there is still a lot of pecking. The 2 month olds are afraid and run like crazy. Two nights ago I put the 2 month olds in the coop with the 4 month olds and put the 1 yr old in a cat carrier in the run so she is seperated from them all. Hoping that will help. If I can get all the younger ones getting along eventually I'll let the older one in the coop at night with them all. Oh and getting her to go in the cat carrier is about as easy as getting my cats to go in!! haha Just this morning I was thinking having chickens is just as much work as having kids!