unvaccinated chickens

Hello Lynsnow and welcome to the forum 

I am not an expert but I would give your pure breed hens about two weeks for any potential nasties to show themselves before you add any hybrids.  Then, if possible, I would then keep the hybrids in separate quarters but in view of the other hens for about two weeks because even if they are vaccinated they could still be harbouring nasties.  If you do that I don't think there would be any problem keeping pure breeds with hybrids. 

When it comes to joining the two groups together it is best to move hens after dark when they are semi-comatose and let them out as early as possible the next morning.  There will probably still be some pecking order establishment.  This can look very nasty but best not to interfere if possible unless you can see blood or raw pink areas.  This is when you need the Purple Spray; Yes, it is called that though it is actually gentian violet.  This acts as a mild disinfectant on the wound and disguises the colour.  Hens can get drawn to pecking at pink or red areas.

Leave plenty of feeding and drinking stations so that lower pecking order hens can get to food and drink.  I have also seen suggestions of some branches as cover where hens can get out of the way if necessary.

It sounds and can look very nasty but is a natural part of how chickens behave and after a few days the squabbling usually settles down and you have a harmonious integrated flock.

Good luck and keep us posted 

By the way we love to see pictures of your hens on this forum so if you can post some that would be great! 

If the hybrids are vaccinated it is not usually advised to keep vaccinated and unvaccinated birds together. I think it may be because the vaccinated birds can pass on some of the diseases which they have been vaccinated against.

I have been reading up on this a lot just lately to try and find out the reasoning behind vaccination programmes, and (though I am happy to be corrected if wrong) it seems that "commercial" hybrids are automatically vaccinated against a series of virus/diseases and this gives them freedom from the symptoms for around 12 - 18 months, though they are quite likely to have the diseases and be capable of infecting other birds they come in contact with.

The reason for the vaccinations seems to be to reduce the financial impact on the large commercial flocks.

Simply mixing these commercially vaccinated birds with unvaccinated birds need not necessarily result in infection, as it will often depend on how naturally resistant the unvaccinated birds are.  Also any stress factors that might increase the risks,  including being less well nourished, kept in less than ideal conditions, and induced stress from the mixing of the flocks.

 

The lady i bought them off said if i wait for the unvaccinated birds to start laying they should be ok  why would that be.

As young pullets change and grow ready to lay their first eggs it is a very stressful period in their development, so perhaps the added strain of

(a) of introducing strange birds which would unblance the flocks dynamics
(b) also being vaccinated birds they may carry diseases the unvaccinated birds have not encountered previously

This combined with the stress of coming into lay could prove the tipping point

Vaccination of commercial flocks is done for financial reasons. They are kept very densely so if you get one sick bird the lot can go down with it and this may mean the loss of thousands of birds in just one shed.

For backyard keepers, in my humble opinion, it shouldn't be necessary if the housekeeping is good.