Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

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Here's some pictures of her since I got her home. I think I am regretting this move already. My 10 chickens are not taking it well and neither is she. She's trying to attack them from behind bars while they are making low chortling sounds and looking at her. My chocolate Orpington got to close and she got bit in the comb...bleeding. Kicking myself!!
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Do you all think she is full grown? Oh, I just feel sick right now. She's in the coop with the rest but she's in a separate cage.
 
That's very normal behavior for newly introduced chickens. Looks like she is near point of lay. She may grow a little bit more.
The best way to go about introducing a new bird to the flock is to keep her separate, but nearby. This allows everybody to get used to each other without putting anyone at risk of injury. After about a week or two, you can bring in one of the more mellow, easy-going flock members to be her buddy. Once they are accustomed to each other you can allow supervised run/free range time with the flock. If that goes well, you can start cooping everybody up together.
Introductions are something that needs to be done gradually. You can't just throw a new chicken in the pen and expect everybody to get along from the start.
 
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Thanks junebuggena! I'm utterly shaken by the whole thing! When I brought the Orpinton home I did just plop her in with the rest and they worked it all out in a matter of minutes. BUT, the Orpington was a grownup and the rest (9 of them) were 6 weeks old. Do you think I can free range them together tomorrow of is that just too fast?
 
junebuggena said:
That's very normal behavior for newly introduced chickens. Looks like she is near point of lay. She may grow a little bit more.
The best way to go about introducing a new bird to the flock is to keep her separate, but nearby. This allows everybody to get used to each other without putting anyone at risk of injury. After about a week or two, you can bring in one of the more mellow, easy-going flock members to be her buddy. Once they are accustomed to each other you can allow supervised run/free range time with the flock. If that goes well, you can start cooping everybody up together.
Introductions are something that needs to be done gradually. You can't just throw a new chicken in the pen and expect everybody to get along from the start.
Click to expand...
I am looking at adding a few this spring and we did this with new dogs I did not realize it would apply to chickens as well thank you
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Probably too fast. Adding a single bird to an established flock takes time. I'm talking weeks. You've got to give them time to get used to the idea of a new bird in the flock, otherwise they might all gang up on her. 10 grown birds against one, is not good odds. If you can setup her own run next to theirs with some t-posts and welded wire, it would be best. After she's settled in a bit, you can put a mid to low ranking bird from the established flock into her run for company. There will still be a bit of pecking order fighting, but it shouldn't be too bad. Once they become buddies, and the flock is ignoring her, you can start free ranging. If that goes well, you can coop them up together.
 

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