Pecking order 1 month vs 1 year old hens

[Fentonchicken]

Hey I have been doing some reading on here but I'm new to this and I don't want to end up with any injured birds.

I am trying to introduce 6, 1 month old Americana's to 3, 1 year old Red Stars. I have one large coop and after the first day I realized that I needed to segregate them. So I built a smaller coop inside of my larger one last night for the noobs. The Reds were doing some pretty serious pecking on the little guys and they are terrified of the them. It seems that My largest Red Pecks at one of the other reds and the 2nd red in turn is attacking the new chicks.

What do I do?

 

[sourland]

Do not try to integrate them until the chicks are nearly as large as the adult hens. Big chickens pick on little chickens - chicken society is frequently cruel.

 

[TheEggCollecter]

I would wait a little bit until they are bigger then integrate them then. When you do put them together do it at night when the other chickens are roosting. Place the newbies on the roost too. This makes it less stressful for the newbies because the older hens are just too tired to care. And...

 

[sourland]

In my experience 'sneaking them into the flock' at night does not work. Chickens know that they are newcomers, and the beatdown ensues in the morning.

 

[Fentonchicken]

Update. Today is now day 3. The little newbs stayed in the smaller coop I built for them and the Red Hens showed no interest in them and went out to free range. Day one was like watching Jurassic park Velociraptor style.

The coop is a metal shed 8'x9'. and Inside I built two smaller coops 5.5'x4' each. the Red's side is pretty open and for the chicks I made it more of a contained box with only a opening large enough for them to get in and out of.

 

[TheEggCollecter]

In my experience 'sneaking them into the flock' at night does not work. Chickens know that they are newcomers, and the beatdown ensues in the morning.

I have never once placed the new chickens on to the roost to keep the older hens from besting up on them. I do it because it makes the transition less stressful for the little ones.

 

[Coralietg]

I sent out about 5 4 week old chicks out to 20+ 1 year old pullets. I put them in a dog crate inside the coop for 2 days, then opened the door. I've been adding 2 more at a time from the house as they get bigger. No terrible issues so far, and it's been a week since the first ones went out. We have lots of space for them to free range, but on occasion when one of the young chicks goes through a crowd of the older ones, there is a hazing head peck from most of them. I guess there is a reason behind the phrase "pecking order", lol.

There is plenty of space in the coop, and outside. The hardest time I have is separating during feeding time.