introducing new chickens

[Annpan]

So, I have done a bit of reading and here is what I understand to be the best method in our situation (introducing 3 newbies to 2 existing chooks)

Place them in seperate but adjoining runs during the day (hoping to collect the newbies in the evening so to minimise this time... then, as dusk falls, wait for our existing 2 to get into the house, nice and snug and then open up the back door and plonk the newbies on a space on a perch.
apparently fighting doesn't happen at night??? and by the morning they are used to the new smells, etc, so should be fine???


anyone got any experience doing it this way?

It makes more sense to me than to get our new 3 settled in a different house (which we would still have to build) then move them later.

[Annpan]

Well the 3 new ones are POLs and are coming from a flock of 50 (or more) so I reckon they won't know what they are doing either

[Annpan]

I'm surviving, thanks

[Millymollymandy]

Did your original ones know to perch as soon as you got them? My newbies have been here for 2 1/2 weeks now and haven't learnt to do it yet. It's actually preferable because if they were on the perch they'd be getting pecked unmercilessly by the oldies.

I'd just plop them all in together as you're getting more newbies than oldies. The main thing is to have a big enough outdoor space that the newbies can run away from the oldies during the day. Put food and drink out in separate areas too so that they can always get at some, or the oldies may chase them away if there's only one place.

[Millymollymandy]

apparently fighting doesn't happen at night???

Probably not when they finally go to sleep but it's that period from when they jump onto the perch until they go to sleep, which can be a long time when there are new ones around. That's really the problem time if you've got newbies who are determined to perch. We had a right old musical perches (up and down, up and down ) by all of them, shuffling around, pecking and squarking for ages when we introduced batch 2 to batch 1. It went on for months. That's why I'm glad that batch no. 3 aren't perching yet.

[Annpan]

I think it took our old ones a few days at least to learn how to perch.... which makes cleaning the poop much easier too, as it falls onto a seperate board in our chook house.

Thanks for the extra food and water tips

[red]

TBH we have just chucked the new ones in with the old ones. so long as they have enough space to get away if there is trouble.. it seems to work out. we have always had to shove the new ones in the house at night the first night... then after that they work it out for themselves. theres a bit of fighting and sorting out over the next few days, then it settles

[Thurston Garden]

Annpan - I would echo 3M and Red. They will fight no matter what - inside the henhouse, or out. They need to establish a new pecking order and it will take a couple of days. Bung em in (night time as you suggest is best). Let them sort it out, and as 3M says, it's important to have plenty outside space so the lowest pecking hens can go sulk in a quiet corner.

I think adding 3 to 2 should actully be quite easy. Imagine adding 1 to 40!

[clare]

I'm not sure all the advice was much good.I inroduced 3 new hens to my 9 recently.They were seperated by day and night for 3 weeks looking a each other until Tinkerbelle top of the pecking order decided to get into the new chucks pen and have a peck!!I then mixed them in and it was awful there were 3 of the old girls on top of one newcomer!this went on for a day or 2 until they gradually lost interest or so I thought,but it has been 4 weeks now and they still peck the new girls quite alot but there has been no blood!I did learn one thing though that chickens who are pecked alot learn to play dead,I looked and thought oh my god they have killed her but she was just pretending so they left her alone!!

[JulieSherris]

Hi Ann,
(Yes, I know I've been absent for a while!)

Anyways..... we got 3 red/brown hens..... all had to be taught to use the perch - that took about 3 nights... then we got 2 guinea fowls to add to the mix... which was great, they liked the guineas... and vice versa, as the guinea cock decided he'd like to try & make guins with the hens....

THEN we got Romeo the RIR rooster - popped him in during the day & as he came from the same place as the Guineas..... and was raised with the guinea pair, we thought they would be fine... they weren't!
So... we popped the guinea pair into the dog shed... now the permanent Guinea home & where the guinea hen is sitting on 19 eggs - when she feels like it!!

Next step.... we went & got 6 more hens
3 are POL marans, 2 green legged partridge pullets & a copper black maran hen who is in the broody box sitting on 16 eggs

Now... we popped in the newbies after the original crowd had gone to bed... only to find everyone coming back out to 'explore' the new arrivals..... I was stood in the run, laughing at Andy & Gail, who were yelling that Romeo 'was trying to kill them!! DO something!!!'
I calmly told them that the rooster was NOT trying to 'kill' the new girls... just mating with them (Even the 5 week old twins got a go, so Romeo is officially a paedophile)

Now - we're 9 days in with them all together & although the twins spend a lot of the day dodging EVERYONE... the marans spend most of their time at one end of the run, while the 3 brown hens hang out with the big lad, preening him & generally sucking up to him...
But peace is the general order of the day & they are about to be moved into their much larger permanent home - finally!

So... after taking advice from an experienced chick breeder, putting the newbies in should be done at night... and yes, if they have room, they will sort themselves out over time.
I always pop the pellets into the feeder, but I also give them cracked wheat & maize... and I scatter that, so 1) they need to work for it & 2) it gets scattered evenly, so everyone gets a chance!

Hope your girlies settle quickly like ours did!!

[Annpan]

Bit of an update...

We picked up the Newbies yesterday morning and a left them in the small run while the original 2 ran about free range, so they could see and face up to each other through the chicken wire and at night we put the 2 old ones in early, waited for them to settle down, then popped the new ones in the house.

There didn't seem to be much trouble and all day today they all free ranged together - till about 7ish (fox time) I shut them all in the run, from which they had access to the house. About an hour later I went to check them and the biggest old chook was lording it up and down the run and the 3 newbies were hiding in the house... sneaking out to take a mouthful of food or water then scurrying back in as they got pecked.

So I took the biggest one out of the run for about 30mins, to let the newbies have some food and water, then put her back in again... I'm hoping they work it out soon cause she is trying to bully all of them just now and that's just horrid.

I just locked them up for the the night and they had all made it into the house and onto the perch... looking quite happy.


Oh and we got 1 newbie egg today

[red]

they'll sort it out.

[Annpan]

Day 3 in the big brother henhouse....

The big boss seems to spend most of her time chasing around the newbies and pecking them when they try to eat. I have scattered some pellets around and put loads in the feeder, it is as if she isn't interested in eating herself, just want's to stop the newbies eating They have tonnes of space and loads of interesting things to do.

Any tips?

Egg production is erratic at the moment from the 2 girls who were laying like clockwork. Plus they are certainly not getting through the same rations of food (though I have witnessed them all eating and drinking)

They do all go to bed at night quite happily, and all 5 squeeze on to the perch side by side... I hear a fair amount of squawking in the morning when I go to open the coop door though.

[Big Al]

Have you got perches at different levels ?

Please say you haven't.... it might help.

The chickens as you know have a pecking order and this is also on the perches. If you have perches at different hieghs the agressive ones can claim the higher perches and the bullied ones the lower perches.

Also if you can have perches in two places it helps. My favourite plan for a coup is perches from left to right and then a couple from front to back down one side. This will allow all the birds to perch but in a different area if needed.

As i say it might help, not a cure. Assuming that is you have the space in the coup.

HTH.

[Annpan]

Nope, we have one perch in the coup and they all go side by side on it - when I checked to see they were all using it on Monday night these 5 little heads in a row were just sitting looking at me, I couldn't stop laughing.

The perch is above a shelf, above the nest box and there is no room for another at the same height.

If they had been on the floor at night (and the first 2 were for at least a week when we got them) I was going to put in another perch at floor level... but it doesn't seem to be needed and, if it is a problem to have 2 levels of perches then I will avoid that.


The problem doesn't seem to be at any other time apart from when the newbies are trying to eat or drink. Should I attempt to feed them separately? I can shut up 2 of them for a while and scatter the feed on the ground for the others and the old bully will just need to lump it.... but I am worried about interfering with the pecking order