Why can't they all just get along?

[chickencrazyinHT]

Decided to combine our white leghorns and RIR hens to free up a whole coop that we need for our newest chickens. This morning, our leghhorns had torn combs and were bleeding. We moved the RIR's into the leghorns coop because the RIR's were the dominant ones when we let them free range together in the afternoons. They pecked at them a little last night but I just thought they would have to work out their pecking order.

We took them out because our leghorns looked awful and blood was all over them. We didn't want them to kill any of them. Up until now we have kept our different breeds in differnent coops but want to try to start combining them when we build bigger coops. What do you do when they fight like this? Will they kill each other? There are no Roosters in these coops so I thought all the girls would work it out and get along....Goodness, I think I got my own Bad Girls Club in the backyard!

 

[FireTigeris]

most ppl introduce slowly to keep these problems form happening, I'm not sure of the other answers, good luck (combs bleed lots BTW )

 

[gordonburrito]

It can take a really long time, but eventually they'll accept one another. Our easter eggers took all summer to get accepted into the flock. They'd just look at the coop at night with hesitation as if to say, "look at all those mean chickens in there!". They'd eventually coop themselves and there would be fireworks until it got dark....and then again in the morning. I think free ranging together helped a lot.