[judrop]

Well after all the sadness of loosing our BB we decided to buy in some new chooks, we went up to North Lincolnshire this morning and bought a couple of 13 week old pullets, a lovely white and a delightful grey, from a lovely man with a very happy feeling poultry farm, seemed like thousands of happy healthy looking chooks about the place.
Now comes the hard bit NAMES ! No seriously, we were not anticipating any problems as our two ex batts Coco and Honey are truly lovely birds with very gentle kind natures, they "nursed" BB when she was ill, however I have never heard Honey so vocal when she spotted the newcomers in the pen, we will keep an eye on them.
Will TRY to post some pics when we have some, not had much luck so far !
Ju
HELP my little angels have turned into monsters ! I am worried that they will do bodily harm to newbies ANY IDEAS PLEASE !!
Thanks Ju

[kimT]

You need to introduce them over a period of time so they can get to know one another. Keep them in a separate pen but so they can all see each other and can have a peck at each other through the chicken wire.

After a week or so let the new ones out about 20 mins before bed time that way they will all be calmer and just stretch out the time each evening and then when you feel things are going ok let them out in the morning altogether.

There will be a bit of chasing and pecking but as long as they can run away things will calm down and they should all get on as time goes on.

Good luck.

[judrop]

You need to introduce them over a period of time so they can get to know one another. Keep them in a separate pen but so they can all see each other and can have a peck at each other through the chicken wire.

After a week or so let the new ones out about 20 mins before bed time that way they will all be calmer and just stretch out the time each evening and then when you feel things are going ok let them out in the morning altogether.

There will be a bit of chasing and pecking but as long as they can run away things will calm down and they should all get on as time goes on.


Good luck.

MANY THANKS Kim, have had so few replies re this , and am at a bit of a loss, we dont have another pen as we have only two original and the two new ones, we have managed to separate them at night and keep the new ones in the pen during the day, feeding both pairs either side of the run wire, we have had one or two run ins but not too bad. This morning one of our ex batts, Coco, has stayed in the run with the new ones after laying and seems ok, heaven knows what will happen if we were to try that with the other ex batt, Honey!
I will try to do as you suggest as far as is possible, dont want any hurt OR upset !
THANKYOU Again
Ju

[Vember]

Sorry I didn't spot your post sooner Jd

There were few replies because it was in Chicken Chat

Follow Kim's advice and you wont go far wrong


Sarah

[Beano]

Its such a shock when you see how horrible they can be to new girls. We went through something similar a few months ago. We made the mistake of only introducing one and it was awfull to see how nasty the other two were to her. It took a couple of weeks for things to settle down. Now they are a happy little threesome.
No particular advice but to make sure that when you eventually put them together that you have at least two feeding/watering stations.
Hope everything settles eventually for you.

[judrop]

Sorry I didn't spot your post sooner Jd

There were few replies because it was in Chicken Chat

Follow Kim's advice and you wont go far wrong


Sarah

No problem , my fault for not putting in right section , its odd at 61 to be the new girl !
Manythanks
Ju x

[judrop]

Its such a shock when you see how horrible they can be to new girls. We went through something similar a few months ago. We made the mistake of only introducing one and it was awfull to see how nasty the other two were to her. It took a couple of weeks for things to settle down. Now they are a happy little threesome.
No particular advice but to make sure that when you eventually put them together that you have at least two feeding/watering stations.
Hope everything settles eventually for you.

Thanks Beano,
it is good to know yours survived , and today one of ours coco seems to be "integrating" the other ,Honey is behaving more like a cockerel, very bombastic !
Fingers crossed, and many thanks
Ju X

[SMD66]

they do settle, honest!  As long as the new ones can get out of the way it shouldn't be too bad. They are just showing natural behaviour I'm afraid.

[nzdunn]

dont worry give it a couple of wks, when i first introduced my two specs i did it over a week, i am lucky i have a separate area for them so they had a big fence between them, towards the end of the week i let the big girls in for a few minutes when i put fresh feed out  and they happily all ate together, next day all hell broke loose but i let them get on with it, once youve put them together try and resist the temptation to separate them again, you have to let them sort it out themselves, give it a week or so and they will all be friends the pecking order is being established.   nickyx

[judrop]

they do settle, honest!  As long as the new ones can get out of the way it shouldn't be too bad. They are just showing natural behaviour I'm afraid.

Thanks for the reassurance, there have been a few times I wouldnt have believed it , but I am sure your right.
Thanks for your kindness
Ju X

[judrop]

dont worry give it a couple of wks, when i first introduced my two specs i did it over a week, i am lucky i have a separate area for them so they had a big fence between them, towards the end of the week i let the big girls in for a few minutes when i put fresh feed out  and they happily all ate together, next day all hell broke loose but i let them get on with it, once youve put them together try and resist the temptation to separate them again, you have to let them sort it out themselves, give it a week or so and they will all be friends the pecking order is being established.   nickyx

Thank you Nicky, lots of good advice, I am sure it will get better, but to have other , more experienced voices tell me so is SO comforting, they will all be going to bed soon so peace will reign again, they are all soggy with the rain, been trying to keep out of each others way all afternoon.
Thanks for your kindness
Ju XX

[bexy]

When i got my 5 ex batts in May this year all seemed ok  (think they was too scared to move)for the first week then in came the pecking order.
Two of the hens was constantly picking on one paricular hen,the poor girl wouldn't even come off the perch for food.
Sometimes they even chased her off the perch!!!
My Mum told me that i should take the 'nasty' one back but i couldn't bare to part with her thinking that if she was returned then she may go to slaughter 

Anyway after about for weeks things calmed down a bit and they all started feeding together.

They are all one 'happy family' now and not much pecking at all.

The hen who was the 'boss' then has now been demoted by the others and is now second in charge!!! and then hen who was very badly picked on seems to be the third in the pecking order :blink:

[judrop]

When i got my 5 ex batts in May this year all seemed ok  (think they was too scared to move)for the first week then in came the pecking order.
Two of the hens was constantly picking on one paricular hen,the poor girl wouldn't even come off the perch for food.
Sometimes they even chased her off the perch!!!
My Mum told me that i should take the 'nasty' one back but i couldn't bare to part with her thinking that if she was returned then she may go to slaughter 

Anyway after about for weeks things calmed down a bit and they all started feeding together.

They are all one 'happy family' now and not much pecking at all.

The hen who was the 'boss' then has now been demoted by the others and is now second in charge!!! and then hen who was very badly picked on seems to be the third in the pecking order :blink:

That is good news Bexy thanks for ideas help and support, They DO seem better today and we have left them to it tonight, the worst problem is one of our neighbours chicks who comes  to play every day, is the worst for chasing and pecking !
Many thanks Ju X

[judrop]

  A quick up - date, and THANK YOU again to everyone who responded, all 4 of our chooks snugly penned and popped tonight TOGETHER !
Pecking and rosey greatly reduced and much more friendly, dont exactly love eachother but it will do for me that they are being polite !!
Many thanks for the support
Ju XX

[judrop]

  Just a quick up date, and to say THANK YOU to all who responded to my cry for help !
WE NOW HAVE A FULLY INTEGRATED "FLOCK" They do practically everything together, lovely to see, I like to see up dates myself , so thought I would let you know .
Thanks a lot Ju XX