What to Expect in Pecking Order??

[LayALilEgg 4Me]

Hey i am fairly new to chicken keeping and when the time comes to introduce my chicks to my older hen, (their mother) who rejected them. ( journey home when i bought them must of disturbed her enough to reject them). I am going to introduce them with the see but no touch method.

But when they are introduced properly together i know their is a peking order thats gonna be settled amongst the hens and its something ill be witnessing for the first time so just wanna know exactly what to expect, when to intervene, or if i leave em to it?

All advice will be fantastic, the more the better. I wanna make sure im well prepared in advanve.

Thanks x

 

[Judy]

Let them peck unless you see blood, then separate til healed and try again!

Mine are always noisiest at roost time, with squabbling and squawking over roost spots -- but it's just a lot of noise, the everyone settles down. I think it's their bedtime ritual or something

 

[Mrs. K]

AArt suggests a one way "gate' where the smaller birds can get through, but a bigger bird can't follow. This allows escape. Hide outs are also a huge help, so that birds can get out of sight of each other. But make sure that it is not a trap, needs to be two exits.

Mrs K

 

[LayALilEgg 4Me]

Thanks for all your help these are really good tips and advice i will be using all and trying all suggestions! What will peking order look like as such will it look disturbing or brutal. Im curiius as to what to expect visually too??

Thanks x

 

[aart]

Here's some notes I've taken on integration that I found to be very helpful.......
......take what applies or might help and ignore the rest.
See if any of them, or the links provided at the bottom, might offer some tips that will assist you in your situation:

Integration of new chickens into flock.

Consider medical quarantine:
BYC Medical Quarantine Article
Poultry Biosecurity
BYC 'medical quarantine' search

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact. Integrating new birds of equal size works best.

For smaller chicks I used a large wire dog crate right in the coop for the smallers. I removed the crate door and put up a piece of wire fencing over the opening and bent up one corner just enough for the smallers to fit thru but the biggers could not. Feed and water inside the crate for the smallers. Make sure the smallers know how to get in and out of the crate opening before exposing them to the olders. this worked out great for me, by the time the crate was too small for the them to roost in there(about 3 weeks), they had pretty much integrated themselves to the olders.

If you have too many smallers to fit in a crate you can partition off part of the coop with a wire wall and make the same openings for smallers escape.


The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide out of line of sight and/or up and away from any bully birds.

Read up on integration..... BYC advanced search>titles only>integration
This is good place to start reading:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock

 

[LayALilEgg 4Me]

Hey thank you so much for taking the time to write all that and explain and find links its very much appreciated!!

Your advice and the links were brilliant and answered all the questions i had in my mind as well as giving me tips and teaching me new things. It will be a good few weeks until its time to introduce my chicks but i just wanted to be clued up and prepared for everything to make things as easy and less stressful for the chickens and my self as possible.

You advice has give me the understaning i needed on pecking order and how things work as well as super tips for introducing. Thank you again it means a lot!! X

 

[aart]

Hey thank you so much for taking the time to write all that and explain and find links its very much appreciated!!

Your advice and the links were brilliant and answered all the questions i had in my mind as well as giving me tips and teaching me new things. It will be a good few weeks until its time to introduce my chicks but i just wanted to be clued up and prepared for everything to make things as easy and less stressful for the chickens and my self as possible.

You advice has give me the understaning i needed on pecking order and how things work as well as super tips for introducing. Thank you again it means a lot!! X

You're welcome....I typed that up a long time ago, more than several times, but finally saved it to a word doc and now just cut and paste ;-)
Glad it helped.

 

[LayALilEgg 4Me]

Thats a great idea cos i bet loads of people ask the same questions! It really is a fantastic site to gain experience and information too!

Soo glad iv obtained this information sooner rather than later thats for sure! Cant thank you enough!! X