pecking orders

[joleen]

Hi, we got 10 brown laying hens when they were baby chicks on May 22 of this year. now that they are pretty much full grown we got a barred Rock rooster and put him in with them. They all get a long. they are on the outside of my shed in the fenced area but aren't allowed to go inside being I ordered 10 black sex links and 10 aracauna's in June as chicks, so they are a little younger then the ones before that. well now they have their feathers and have grown some (not fuzzy anymore) and I wanted to put them all together, so we opened up the shed and a coupld of the red hens went inside and kind of went after them and pecked at them, so then I just seperated them again being I didn't want to wake up in the morning and find some dead. I was just wondering if they get over this kind of thing and just leave them together, or how do I get them all used to eachother to where all of them can share the outside area and the shed?

 

[peepkeeper]

make a divider out of chicken wire so that they can interact and see each other without anyone getting hurt. After a week, take down the divider and see how it goes. There will still be some scuffling but it should be pretty mild. Some people move them in together at night, so that when they wake up, they're a flock and they won't notice that half of the members are new. Good luck.