So I started integration...

[afieldssnowyegger]

I have three 1 yr old EE hens and yesterday put my 4 chicks (2 silkies, 1 polish, 1 blue maran; all about 5-6 weeks) in a pen inside of the run. The older hens could not reach the chicks. Of course, when I was putting the chicks in the pen, one escaped, and my hen at the top of the pecking order immediately ran at her, jumped on her, and started aggressively trying to fight the chick. hard pecking on the head/eyes, kicking, flapping. After I pushed her away and put the chick back, she was running at the pen with the chicks and screaming at them and trying to get to them I have NEVER seen any of my hens act this way, they are never violent. Is this normal/ Will she settle down after a bit? The chicks were a little scared. I moved them back to the brooder after seeing the aggression with the hens. The original plan was to keep them separate for 4-6 weeks before putting them together. Should I keep that plan? Or is it too soon?

 

[AOrchard]

It's not too soon for integration. And normally a week or two of separation is plenty.

She sounds much more aggressive than mine usually are. My hens will chase a new chick off from the group or peck it a few times sternly if it comes too close, but I don't usually see them get upset enough to go at a fence or jump on them and get nasty. That said, chickens are kind of nasty a lot of the time, so you will definitely see some fuss no matter what while they figure it out. The key thing is to keep the hens calm enough so that nobody gets hurt.

I would suggest putting the chicks back in the isolation pen and and watch your hen for an hour. See if she will calm down a little after her initial freak out. She might patrol the fence line for days or peck at the fence if the chicks come near it, that's just fine. If she persists in actively attacking the fence between her and the chicks, put the chicks back in the brooder for now for the hen's safety.

When you do get to integration, I would definitely make sure to put out lots of extra hidey holes for the chicks, since you seem to have an Alpha hen.