What is the easiest way to introduce new chickens to an existing flock?

[Goosey Lucy]

I have a coming in about 2 weeks and once assembled I'm collecting 2 to add to our original 2

 

What do you think will be the best way to get them to live harmoniously? Initially they'll be housed separately in the and but which is the best way to introduce them to each other? Should the new girls get the new house then the oldies are moved in there with them? I'm aiming to have them all living in the cube together and will use the eglu for sick hens, broodies etc.

 

I'm planning on taking the introductions very slowly and supervising any free ranging. As I have the space to have the and within the same space but separated by up to 10 metres they will be able to see each other then eventually one set will free range while the others are kept in their run and so on.

[Chook n Boo Mum]

I'd put the oldies in the cube and the newbies in the eglu when they arrive. Then introduce them slowly when freeranging as is normal practice & let them decide where to sleep once they are all happy together in the daytime.....at least that's how I did it & everything went fairly smoothly.

 

I firmly believe that once they've got used to each other whilst separated but in view, let the chooks take the lead as to when they are ready to fully integrate. Maybe I was just lucky but from January until Easter, I had 3 separate flocks then two then one as they all joined together at their own instigation.

 

Good luck,

 

Sha x

[xScrunchee]

I voted to let the original girls stay in their Eglu and the newbies to go into the cube.

 

Main reason being that once you decide to put them all in together-it might be easier to put the original girls into unfamiliar surroundings (cube) so that they don't feel that the new girls are invading 'their' home.

[Cooks]

I'd put the oldies in the cube and the newbies in the eglu when they arrive. Then introduce them slowly when freeranging as is normal practice & let them decide where to sleep once they are all happy together in the daytime.....at least that's how I did it & everything went fairly smoothly.

I voted this way too, it worked well for me this way around when I did it.

[Goosey Lucy]

Ok so we're split 50:50 at the moment.

 

Aargh!

 

I can see points in favour of both arrangements. Anyone else any suggestions?

 

Thanks,

[Chickendoodle]

My new cube arrived last Monday and we got 3 new . We put the old girls in the and the new girls in the . This seemed to work really well - the old girls were quite confused as there were new girls to look at and a new house to negotiate (luring them up the ladder with spaghetti was quite something on the first night).

 

They got used to the pretty much straight away and laid their eggs as usual in the new multi-chicken nest box.

 

We had our first supervised free range together yesterday. Old girls went straight into the (didn't this used to be ours??), ate the food, drank the water, came out again, chased the new girls for a while but no pecking so far.

 

This way has worked well for us. We will let them free range a bit more today and we were advised by the breeder to properly amalgamate them at night (taking new girls out of and putting them in . Might leave this step until the weekend.

 

Hope this helps

[Goosey Lucy]

Thanks Chickendoodle (great name btw).Good to hear yours are getting together nice and steadily.

[Falkor]

I'd put the oldies in the cube and the newbies in the eglu when they arrive. Then introduce them slowly when freeranging as is normal practice & let them decide where to sleep once they are all happy together in the daytime.....at least that's how I did it & everything went fairly smoothly.

I voted this way too, it worked well for me this way around when I did it.

 

Me TOO! but then i just copied what Cookie did!

[Chickendoodle]

Thanks for comment about name. We have a gorgeous labradoodle dog and chickens (obviously!!!) hence the name

[teri]

i inherited two light sussex without much notice and had no choice but to chuck them in with my other 3 girls straight away. the coop is really big and has three seperate levels. they were fine not even a ruffled feather! to be honest i hadn't had chickens for long and i didn't even consider any problems introducing new ones might create.

i think i was very lucky

good luck with yours