adding to the flock

[littlebrownmouse]

We've had our two chickens for a couple of weeks (we bought them after our other three were killed in a freak dog incident!). Today we bought two new ones and need to introduce them to the flock. We've had so much conflicting advice about hwo to do this ranging from "Your existing chickens are still very young, they should be fine to put straight in with them." to "You must introduce them gradually over thirty days." Please tell me your opinions and experiences. Thanks

I had two existing girls of 18 months and introduced two new girls of 18 weeks. To begin with I put them all in the eglu overnight together and then let them out in the run.

It was armageddon. The big girls totally terrorised the little girls.

So, I did a slow intro, with the new girls in my spare eglu, gradually letting them free range together before after about 3 weeks finally judging that they weren't fighting so much and putting them all in the big run together.

After a the initial couple of weeks, I also put them all in the nest/roost box together at night, but separated them in the morning.

There is a good bit on intros on the omlet site.

... given that they are all quite young, it might be worth a try putting them all in together overnight, keeping them locked in until midmorning then letting them into the run together. See what happens and if you need to extend the intros.

Hve recently introduced 3 hens to 6 others.
They were in adjacent runs for about a week, so they could see each other.
We then put their coop into the larger run.
First we doused them in anti peck spray.
There has been a bit of fighting but nothing too bad. I always let the 'new' ones out of their coop first in the morning so they get first go at the food.