Rooster being mean to new hens

[Jaye1397]

Hi everyone!

Looking for some advice please.

My mum gave me her 2 hens and rooster around 4 weeks ago. They have lived together for over a year and a half.

Last Thursday, My husband and I bought another 8 hens (18 weeks old).

The rooster is always friendly and so are the other two. However, they have been pretty mean to the new hens, chasing them away from food water, pecking them, pulling their feathers.

I feel so sad for the new hens. Our rooster just doesn't seem to protect them like he does the other two. Him and the other two are always together.

Will I need to separate them? Will this pass and is this normal?

Thank you all so so much!!

 

[pennyJo1960]

Welcome to Backyard Chickens. This is a great place to explore and hang out. Might have to separate the peeps to eat or the rooster.

 

[sourland]

Quarantining the new birds and then providing separated pens so that would have had a chance to know one another would have been a good idea. At this point they are developing a pecking order. Provide multiple food and water stations and places where the new birds can get out of sight of the existing flock should help speed up the integration process.

 

[Tookie]

Hello, and welcome to BYC! Nice to meet you.

How did you go about introducing them? When integrating new birds its recommended to do the see-no-touch-method. They need to be able to see each other, but not touch. Do that for about 2 weeks then work into integrating them together. It takes time. Its completely normal for your older birds to go after the new ones.
Space also comes into play, if you don't have a lot of space that makes it worse. The younger ones need places to get away from the others. Also having more than one watering and feeding station help so the younger ones get enough to eat and drink without being chased away by the older ones.

 

[Lovely Lettie]

Hello and welcome to BYC! It's great to have you here with us

 

[Jaye1397]

Thank you so much!

I feel so awful that I just threw these new hens in to the space and assumed they would all be ok as well they're all chickens! I feel terrible.

They have half an acre to roam and there are a few feeding and water stations and I scatter some fruit, veg etc daily.

Will they eventually be accepted in or will it always be like this?

Thank you again!!

Hello, and welcome to BYC! Nice to meet you.

How did you go about introducing them? When integrating new birds its recommended to do the see-no-touch-method. They need to be able to see each other, but not touch. Do that for about 2 weeks then work into integrating them together. It takes time. Its completely normal for your older birds to go after the new ones.
Space also comes into play, if you don't have a lot of space that makes it worse. The younger ones need places to get away from the others. Also having more than one watering and feeding station help so the younger ones get enough to eat and drink without being chased away by the older ones.

 

[Jaye1397]

Quarantining the new birds and then providing separated pens so that would have had a chance to know one another would have been a good idea. At this point they are developing a pecking order. Provide multiple food and water stations and places where the new birds can get out of sight of the existing flock should help speed up the integration process.

Thank you so much!

I feel so awful that I just threw these new hens in to the space and assumed they would all be ok, I stupidly thought that as they're all chickens they would get on ok! I feel terrible.

They have half an acre to roam and there are a few feeding and water stations and I scatter some fruit, veg etc daily.

Will they eventually be accepted in or will it always be like this?

Thank you again!!

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.

Will they eventually be accepted in or will it always be like this?

No. But it takes months for full integration and if they are tight on space, it may always be contentious. Once the pullets start laying, things will shift and calm down a bit.

 

[Jaye1397]

I have failed massively on this by just assuming I could add them in straight away and they would be ok. I feel horrendous for that!

They have access to the whole half acre and I have 3 feeding and 3 water stations.

They are meant to start laying in around 2-3 weeks so hoping that will help calm things down as you say!

Thank you very much again!

 

[sourland]

As DobieLover has said, once the pullets start laying they will be accepted by the rooster and will determine their positions in the social order - aptly named 'pecking order'.