What's the best way to introduce news Hens in with established ones?

[mamahen09]

I have 3 EE's and 1 Cornish Hen almost 13 weeks old, and around a month ago, we tried to introduce them in with the already established Hens, and it was a disaster. The Older Hens literally tried to beat the heck out of them, while Red the Rooster played the protector and tried to keep the bigger ones away from the smaller ones.Needless to say we immediately took the smaller ones out..... My older hens range from 19 to 21 weeks right now and I'm nervous about trying this again, but know I have to.
What is the easiest way in doing this? And would any of you know if this would work... If we removed the bigger hens from their area first ....then allowed the smaller ones to enter, and then maybe an hour or so later, putting the bigger hens back in with them?
There has to be an easy way of doing this......any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[chickenlittle32]

Have you tried doing this at night when they are all ready to sleep? That's what I was told to do to lessen the trouble.

 

[mamahen09]

Our Hens are so backwards right now, on going in to the coop at night. We have to make them go in, and we'll go back and check on them a short time later and they're right back out in their yard. That's another problem we are dealing with right now, lol.

 

[cmom]

Every integration is different. You are going to have problems with all of your pullets as the older ones 19-21 weeks are still somewhat establishing their pecking order then add to the mix are the month olds and 13 week olds. I would put them next to each other for awhile so they can see each other and wait until they are closer to the same size before trying to put them together again. There will still be some pecking and chasing but as long as there is no blood they will have to work out their pecking order. That is how I have done it in the past. I will be doing it again in about 3 months. I am going to be building a new coop for all of my birds. I am going to put the pullets now 2 months old in the new coop first for a week or so before I put my older birds. My hens will be about 1½ yrs old and 2½ yrs old when I put them in with the pullets, which they will be around 20 weeks old then. Last time I put them together during the day while they were free ranging. I put plenty of treats out to distract them. I let the pullets out first for awhile before I let my hens out. Also I made sure there was plenty of obstacles and places for the pullets to run and hide behind to get away from the hens when the hens did chase them. I had 2 hens that were real bullies and I took them out of the yard and shut them in their run while the others were in the yard. There was minor chasing and pecking when I removed the bullies. The yard is fenced in. On my BYC page is more detail on my integration

Here is some good information on integrating flocks.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2593-adding-to-your-flock
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=14951

 

[mamahen09]

Thank you so much......You have a great BYC page with lots of valuable info!!