putting new chickens with older chickens

[tomboy2014]

how do I put my new chickens (when they are old enough) in with my adult chickens we had for a yr without them picking on them. we already have the adult chickens peaking each other and pulling out there feathers and i dont know how to handle keeping them from not riping out each other feathers and we lossed one of our chicken from being peaked so bad

 

[bobbi-j]

If you're already having problems with your adult chickens picking at each other and feather picking, I would not add any more to that flock. Those are signs of over crowding, and adding more chickens will only add to the problem. You will need to expand your coop, run, or wherever you keep them. Do you already have younger chicks? If you don't, I would suggest not getting any more until you get this problem straightened out. If you already have them, you should probably keep them separated until you have more room. Now let's move on and say you have improved the conditions your current chickens are living in, and they have lots and lots of space so you can add new ones. There will be squabbles to establish pecking order. That happens no matter how much space you have. The younger chicks should not be added until they are close to the same size as the adults and you have provided places where they can get away from the older hens. It would also be helpful if you have at least two feeding and watering stations so the older ones can't keep the younger from eating and drinking. Chicken relationships are not always pretty. They can get nasty while working things out between two different flocks. But I will repeat myself - you SHOULD NOT add more chickens until you get your original flock to the point where they are not feather picking and cannibalizing one another.

 

[wny egger]

hi tomboy ..I have been reading on here about how to do that without causing a lot of harm ..I read that some introduce new chickens to the flock at night by setting them on the perch together ..I also have read were some have split the run in half with fencing and let the new birds on one side and the flock on the other side and after a week or so they remove the fencing ..they will still be at each other to set pecking order but it tends to be for a shorter period of time that they get along ..
I also read that some let them out to free range together ..I plan on splitting the run ..


try this search..




https://www.backyardchickens.com/newsearch?search=how+to+introduce+new+birds+to+flock&=Search



good luck ..

 

[tomboy2014]

they didn't start peaking till is started getting warmer out and we had a realy BAD winter idk if that effects them at all thank u for the advise we are planning build another chicken coop next to it so we can separate them if they are getting peaked on and we are planning to expand the run and we always have 2 feed and water contaners I just want to make all my chickens happy I was also wondering if there was a way to help them not peak at each other

 

[wny egger]

know they have to set a pecking order and that's how they do it ..its not a pretty sight and can cause your heart to skip a beat to watch ..

if it hasn't started till it got hot then bobbi is prolly right about available space..
make sure theres plenty of room for all the birds or like mentioned above by bobbi-j..over crowding will make for some real upset birds ..the old flock will feel the pressure for sure ...its important to give them enough room to graze as well as room in the coop and perch areas.. I no I wish I could let mine free range but were I live I wouldn't dare ..so I am building larger runs and more coops ..darn chicken math ..




altho it seems there are ways to make it so it doesn't last a long time ..a week or so ..but what ever you do remove any birds you see that are bleeding ..the blood will make the attacks more harsh and could cost the life of the bird ..check out that link I posted ..it has a bunch of ways other members have used to introduce new birds to a flock..