Struggling to get new chickens integrated- HELP!

[Wood Dude]

This process was one night long. Everyone is going in the coop by themselves and seem to be getting along. The older girl is the alpha but she's not over aggressive.The next addition to the flock will follow the same process.

 

[jenniferlamar70]

Multiple feeding stations can ease tensions. The size of your coop and run may also influence how smoothly things go. I'd suggest reading these links to see if there are any ideas that you may wish to use. [COLOR=E4AF09]https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1015820/reintegration-by-supervised-visits#post_15742910[/COLOR]

[COLOR=E4AF09]https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock[/COLOR]

[COLOR=E4AF09]https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/introducing-new-chickens-using-the-see-but-don-t-touch-method[/COLOR]

[COLOR=454545]https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1098683/introducing-new-chickens-to-old-flock#post_16895615[/COLOR] [COLOR=454545]Good luck[/COLOR] [COLOR=454545]CT[/COLOR]

Chickens will peck each other to death....I've, personally never seen it happen but I've heard of it so much that there has to be some truth to it. But...what you are describing sounds like a predator. For only the head to be missing, wow...that sounds like a predator gained access and killed one of your hens. aart...what does this sound like to you?

It's a cat. I didn't read all the comments so sorry if someone already said this but we had a cat pull some of our smaller chickens through the coup and eat the heads off. We caught it so we know it was a cat. Also we have 2 black sex links and I think they are a bit more territorial then maybe some breeds. We isolated them for a few days. Until they stopped bullying our chicks..

 

[sezimodo]

Hi everyone,

We've recently done our first ever integration, and a lot has been going on!

We had 2 girls who were about 18 months old, and we introduced 3 16 week old girls. We did the run within the run trick, and after a few days of pecking through the bars they ignored each other. One of the old girls had been really noisy and distressed for a few months but became really distressed and made herself hoarse after a few days being integrated.We decided to rehome her, and shes now really happy and quiet in her new home. That left one original girl, who has always been food obsessed.

In the last 2 weeks shes got noticeably fatter and the new girls dont stand a chance of any corn. We do have two feeders so they get enough food. Any way of getting fat Dottie to stop being such a piggy wig? Shes stopped laying since her friend was rehomed, but we have had a sudden cold snap and a change in their coop (we brought an eglu cube!) and new hens so a lot of stress, but fat chickens dont lay and all that. The 4 girls all tolerate each other now, until food arrives!

Any suggestions?