Pecking order questions

[8isGreat]

I have 2, 1 yo RIR hens that I've had for 3 months. I purchased 6 hens (unseen) last week and was sad to see that their beaks were clipped. I have them in separate henhouses & in separate runs sharing the same fence. They have been observing one another for 1 week. I tried to mix them today, but couldn't stand the pecking my senior RIR was doing. I see that I've probably introduced them too early as I've searched the board.

Questions.
How long should I wait to mix them?

None of my hens have free ranged yet due to some construction on our property. Should I wait to mix them until they are free ranging?

Will my unclipped hens automatically be senior in the pecking order?
Will the unclipped younger hens be able to peck back?

Would introducing a rooster make things better or worse? (I intend to get a rooster as soon as I find one)

Should I continue to keep the hens observing one another for another week in the runs or allow them to free range now (or in a few days) allowing them to mix in unfamilliar territory with plenty of space?

My senior hens will eventually join the young hens in the new henhouse, will this mix up the pecking order?

 

[nop169]

When adding new poultry to an established poultry yard the pecking order is disturbed and it takes some time to readjust. Personally I tend to let the new guys be seen by the established birds using the side by side pen for a week (as you have done). I then open the doors and allow them to mingle while feeding over the next few days - most of the time this allows supervised reestablishment of the pecking order & I am close at hand if blood flies! When that is not possible I have successfully added like color birds at night by placing them on the roost with the current flock. If the established flock will not assemilate with the new poultry by these methods I will remove everyone from the coop & cage them in smaller pens for several days & then release the old & new at the same time back into the coop. All of these methods work - just have to figure out your resident birds & which will work for yours. However - I do not care for RIR because they tend to be soo aggressive with other birds - especially birds of a different color. Because of their aggressiveness we do not keep RIRs. On the other hand - our standard cochins, wyndottes, barred rocks & americanas usually accept new members without a fuss and without doing anything - just place the new bird into the coop & keep a close eye for a couple of days.... usuallly a mock charge or two & it is all over.
As far as the debeaked hens - I ve seen debeaked hens at the top of the pecking order & at the bottom. I feel it is more an overall persona & attitude rather than the damage inflicted by the beak. In my limited experience with debeaked hens - it made no difference.
Also - not that I tried it on a hen but have on an aggressive roo - my grandfather would take a senior aggressive hen who was out of control & "spank" her with a burlap bag when she attacked other members of the flock. It worked for him - she stopped - he kept RIR & NHR. This also worked on my people aggressive roo.

 

[elmo]

Just a suggestion, should you ever decide to add new birds to your flock. It's recommended that you quarantine the new birds for at least a month to see whether they may be carriers of any disease that could infect your existing flock. This would mean allowing the new birds no contact with your existing flock for the period of quarantine.

Some people skip the whole quarantine idea and are lucky to have no problems. It's your choice.