Reverse the Introduction of hens to pullets

[Dtrain28]

I had a question.... I have two hens that are a year old and 3 pullets that are 8 weeks... I have been introducing the pullets daily this week supervised with minimum incidents ( a little posturing and pecking from my older Orp)

My question is, should I take the hens out of their coop and put the 3 pullets in their place? The older hens would live in another cage for a week or two and then be re-introduced to their old coop......

Does this make sense or is it too stressfull on my older hens?

 

[Bravo]

Chickens can be territorial so if you place the new brood in the coop too soon you may start a turf war.

I integrate my flocks of different ages by having an interim run where I keep the new, younger birds locked in for a minimum of 1 week so they can see each other side by side. Then I gradually let both parties out to free range together under timed, supervised visits. After a week of that everyone is acclimated and can range together although they still roost in their segregated pens. After that I start slowly moving the younger birds in with the adults at night until I close off the interim pen all together.

The process takes about 4 weeks but I've never had a bird hurt this way and the stress on both age groups is substantially reduced by the gradual introduction.

 

[Bravo]

Forgot to say,

what I explained above is similar to what you proposed only the younger pullets would be in the dog cage (although it would be best of you hooked 2 really big dog cages (48") together as their run. One would be too small.

 

[Denninmi]

Actually, I did basically what the OP suggests, and it seemed to do the trick. When I put the pullets in the run, the original hens were awful to them, really beating them up, literally. So, I caged the original hens in a small dog kennel inside the run for 3-4 days and let the pullets have the run of it. Seemed to give the older birds a bit of attitude adjustment. When I put them all together again, a couple of minor scuffles the first day, then peace reigned again.

 

[Dtrain28]

Thanks for the info....The Coop is not a huge coop 3 ft tall by 4 ft wide x 8 ft long......it's going to be tough to put a cage "in " the coop....what about a larger cage next to the coop? or does that defeat the purpose

 

[Bravo]

Quote:
Next to the coop

The goal is to let them see each other without having a chance for the younger ones to get picked on.

Best of luck!