What to expect when integrating larger flock to small flock

[flyin-lowe]

Due to a loss I only have 4 hens left of my original flock, two 3 year old barred rocks and two 1 year old Amberlinks. Yesterday I bought 7 Buffs, 4 barred rocks and 1 RIR. All hatched March and April of this year. I have them in a temp coop for quarantine, I am just curious when I add 12 new hens to the coop where the 4 have been living in what to expect? Last year I added 5 Amberlinks to a flock of 7 and things went pretty smooth. The first night a few of them were pushed out and slept in the pop door opening but after a day or so they got along nicely.

 

[Ridgerunner]

What should you expect? About anything. You are dealing with living animals. Things might go extremely smoothly with absolutely no issues. Chickens might die or get seriously injured. You typically read about the times there are problems on here but often it's not anywhere that bad. Why are you going to ask for help when things are going well?

One of the big issues to me is how much room you have. If you free range them and don't worry about them all sleeping in the same coop it is unlikely you will have any issues. The more you crowd them either during the day or where they sleep at night the more likely you are to have issues. So for me to even guess what kinds of issues you might have I'd need to know more about how much room you have and how you will manage them.

Those pullets are at an interesting age. Some maybe laying, most probably aren't. When they start laying they tend to mix in with an adult flock much better, it's a matter of maturity. Until my pullets start laying they tend to stay away from the adults during the day and not sleep on the main roosts with the adults at night. There can be exceptions, there always are with living animals, but there are trends.

There are some things we tend to recommend to make integration easier. The more crowded yours will be the more critical these can be. Housing them across fencing so they can "look but not touch" for a week or more is often a good idea. Having widely separated feeding and watering stations can avoid a lot of potential conflict. Providing places where they can break line-of-sight or hide under, behind, or over can make life easier. Being patient and allowing them to work things out at their pace instead of forcing them into tight places where they have to fight it out can remove a lot of drama. We all have different facilities, management techniques, goals, and even chickens with different personalities so what works for me might not work for you.

I don't know how old those Amberlinks were last time but what you did worked. You have a few more chickens this year and they are going to have different individual personalities but hopefully it will go as smoothly for you this year.

Your expectations can factor into that also. My definition of a successful integration is that no one gets hurt. Some people want the chickens to cuddle up to each other, sleep together. just be one big happy family. That can come later. As long as no one is seriously injured I'm happy.

 

[flyin-lowe]

I kind of worded my title wrong. I assumed last year since the number of birds I added was half of the existing flock the existing flock would be more likely to gang up and try to dominate the newbies. Now the newbies more then double the existing flock. I was curious if this would make the existing birds less likely to try to control the new birds, if that makes sense. I went up Friday to look at the guys birds that were for sale and all looked good. I was planning to get 10 birds and picked out the 10 I wanted, he had a couple more left he just tossed in. My coop has 64 square foot of space and the run is 8x24 foot all wrapped in hardware cloth. I’ve usually kept 12 at a time with no issue. I normally let them free range when I am home from work. So they are in the coop/run during the day 5 days a week and free range evenings and weekends.

 

[flyin-lowe]

Well so far so good. This last week I have been letting them free range in the evenings and not much bickering at all. The new ones have been in there temp coop for two weeks and I was planning a little longer. However we are supposed to get a ton of rain the next few days due to the tropical storm remnants so I moved them this morning. The temp coop was not the most weather resistant and I didn't want them to be miserable the next several days. I let my four older hens out to free range and moved all the new ones into the coop/run. Once the older ones marched around for about 1/2 hour they started to ignore them so I let them back in. I went ahead and threw in a fresh bale of straw to help during the rain and that has kept most of them occupied the last couple hours. I have seen very little pecking at all, not near what I thought would occur. I'm sure tonight come roost time there might be some fighting.....

 

[flyin-lowe]

First evening seems to be going smooth as well. I went out and checked on them just before dark and they were all perched on the roosts except for one who was on the 5 gallon bucket feeder. No struggling going on, as if they have been in there for a long time.

 

[Mrs. K]

Really that is pretty much what I expected, although as Ridgerunner says, who knows for sure. The original girls had home court advantage, the new girls had a bit more numbers.

In my experience, the more you add the better, less major picking... but if you have the room and the ability for chickens to get away from each other by platforms, or hideouts or roosts.

Onice in a while you will get two hens that just will not get along, I have only had it happen once. I was beginning to think I would have to do something, and the mean one died... so who knows

always settle for peace in the flock.

Mrs K