[Blarney]

Apologies - I need more advice.

Two new hens arrived yesterday to join our original three.  The three have recently lost their leader to a fox and no one was fighting for top hen status. 

We had to introduce them during the day yesterday.  One of the new ones got pecked a fair bit yesterday and again today but she is ok.  The other one is having a hard time.  She is being quite badly pecked and is now pretty shaken up.  We had to go to work today & the neighbour tells us the originals wouldn't let either of them out of the coup.  We've just shut the door of the coup, with her inside, and given her food and water.

I'm not sure what to do now.  I can separate the run in two but only have one coup. 

Please advise.  I'm really worried about her.  She actually ran over to me as I opened the coup and I put my hand in.  She sat behind my hand, almost for protection.  Seeing as she is white and there is no blood does this mean that they haven't gone into full out attack mode and they will settle? 

[andreadon]

the only way to do it is to keep her in a separate run - you don't have to build a new run, just put a partition in the original run - some kind of chicken wire/wood construction so that they can see each other but not touch.
it'll eventually sort itself out.
(integrate slowly).
unfortunately, with these things, sometimes you do get problems.

we had to have separate coops, too, but you could do a similar thing inside the soop - a chicken ire barrier.
that way they think they are all together but can't harm each other.

usually, they sleep well at night together, but (as with ours) if they wake up before you do in the morning they can do a lot of damage.

[Blarney]

Thank you for the response.  So if we put the two new girls one side how do we integrate them slowly?  Do we do them plus one original on day two, then them plus two originals on day three or do we just take down the barrier for a longer period each day?

[Vember]

Leave the new ones one side and the older ones on the other

So long as they can see each other but not attack each other. Then after a week try taking down the divide and see what happens. If you still have problems pop the divide back

It can take 2-3 weeks for older birds to except new ones

Sarah

[Blarney]

Thank you - I'm really grateful for the advice.  I think they were ok in the coup last night so they can all go in there tonight and I'll split them in the morning.

I hope the old ones start shutting up as the neighbours will complain about the noise.  They are so loud it's ridiculous!!

[Caralou]

Mine are telling the world they're there from 6.30 every morning, I also worry the neighbours will lose patience, but it seems most people enjoy they're rosey so hopefully will be the same for you. I just read this with interest as my new girls have gone in with the others tonight and if I have any problems this advice from everyone seems great.

I hope your new girls settle soon and that there are no more problems, but keep us updated with photos!!! 

[Blarney]

Hi Caralou
Good luck with yours!!  It's the first time that we've introduced new girls so I may just be over anxious.  I went from being in love with the originals to now thinking they are neanies. 
I'll keep you posted and will post up pictures when I can.  The new two are beautiful.
xx

[andreadon]

it's natural to be anxious - noone likes seeing hens pecking the newbies to bits!

If you are home for long periods, like on the weekends, you can let them out into the garden - quite often, if they've got a larger area to run about in then they ignore each other (ours didn't - we had to put our newbies into a separate run in the garden too - just a round of chicken wire was enough)

[HENrietta]

Hi Blarney, we have had to have our two oldies and our two newbies separated for the last 6 weeks. They are getting better but it is such a slow process! One of the new girls flora is older that what we thought, and has this week started laying which is great, but she seems to know that her little hen house is temporary (Which is in her side) and everyday she jumps/flys over the meter high mesh to lay in the main hen house, our older girls like yours are extremly cross and let everyone know by thier vocals!
Yesterday the 2 oldies somehow got underneath the mesh and all four were fine for a while, i thought i would check to see that everything was fine, and for some reason they decided to really attack my newest little 'martha' and she too came straight to my side for help. Bless her.  
It will get worse before it gets better, trust me. Keep letting them out altogether when you can.
WE are keeping ours segretted until the easter holidays when we are all home to supervise the war zone! I was so upset when we first put them togehter as the pecking is not nice at all, I would stongly recommend you keep them separate for a while longer, all hens are different and some obviously adapt to company more so than others! I think we have spoilt our two oldies and they are seeped in jealousy as now we pay attension to flora and marhta!
Good luck honey.

HENrietta

[andreadon]

i know that everyone on here will have ahorror story about their newbies versus originals battles!
every time we changed the run for the newbies, the originals would get the hump something chronic!  jessica would jump on top of the wire run we constructed and shout at the top of her voice.
very distressing to start with, but you learn to ignore the jeslous ones - at the same time keeping an eye on anything that could be wrong.

good luck with it and keep perservering!

[shiatsusu]

Leave the new ones one side and the older ones on the other

So long as they can see each other but not attack each other. Then after a week try taking down the divide and see what happens. If you still have problems pop the divide back

It can take 2-3 weeks for older birds to except new ones

Sarah

This is exactly what happened with ours and it took 2 weeks of keeping them separate but together at night then free ranging for it all to settle. You could also try taking the dominant bird out if you have one and allowing the 2 new girls to run with the non dominant so the dominant effectively loses her place. Good luck!

[nicchick]

We keep our newies separate during the day then, at corn time when they are all relaxed and distracted let them mix. Put them all in to sleep together, means a couple of weeks of getting up really early to get them out but it's worth it. Nic.