Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[Bunnyish]

I have my 5 together in WIR, i have 2 new girls in temp run butted right up next door touching the other run...

 

I started with 3 girls and intro'd 2 others which took a staggering 5 months!! (the just appeared to hate each other!) but all is well now...

 

How long should it take for the girls to be best of buddies , i had some pecking and sizing up the other day, which clancy came off worse n got pecked by the new girl Roxie...

 

i let the old girls free range around the new girls, i might (weather dependent) let the new girls out to free range around the old girls and see how they get on and if all goes well ( )... maybe... free range together....

[Space Chick]

I think I have been remarkably lucky, as I have done 3 sets of intros and each one took around 3 weeks. I allowed combined supervised free ranging after a week (2 with the ex batts) and then took it from there, but in fairness my girls worked faster at it than I did

[quickcluck]

We always do ours with a minimum of 5 weeks! Normally a tad longer - but that makes them mostly trouble free

[chelsea]

I don't think there is a set limit really.... all depends on the individual chickens/breed. Our last addition took 12 weeks as our top chook Ella was very feisty, now we have a calmer quieter flock and I don't think we'd have to wait as long for intros.

[sjp]

mine took about 5 months mainly down because the new ones were only 10 weeks old.they all went in together early October it was just before Christmas when Rusty started to lay, thats when I'd say that the big girls finaly started to accept the fact that the 3 new girls were part of the 'family'.It's now at the stage that the new girls seem to be in charge well they lead the charge any way

[Lewis]

We had to integrate 2 new bantams in with Purkinje that took about 3 weeks, and those 3 were kept away from the PP's.

Then we got the ducks in early December - only last week were they like a proper flock and all running round the garden together

 

They only FR together though, but will all be moving into the new WIR soon hopefully

[Egluntyne]

There are a couple of articles **here** on managing intros.

[prof]

i think i must be very lucky as my first intro of 2 too 2 took a day! i had 2 eglus and was planning on keeping 2 in each for quite some time. i let them all free range together on day 2 and they were fine. at night i went out to check they had roosted in the correct eglus and they had all gone in one. so that was that

last week i got 4 new chucks and popped them into my and put my other 3 in the but let them free range around the (with extension) keeping the new 4 inside the run. On day 3 i let the new 4 out to free range with the other 3 and all went well. At night i went out with the torch expecting 3 in the and the other 4 in but they were all in the and even better my partridge orp was even roosting on the bars with the others and not in the nest box where she always went

they all free range all day together as a flock and all roost at night

perhaps as Chelsea says it depends on the breeds

i must say though that my chucks have loads of space and plenty of feeders. i dont know if this helps

[Olly]

It's a case of playing it by ear, I'd reckon on 3-4 weeks at least but keep an eye on things, sometimes it's quicker and sometimes takes longer. What I would say though is to be realistic - if you wait for the day when there's no pecking or bullying at all, it could be a very long time.

 

Even in an established flock there'll be the occasional telling-off or pushing out of the way, and even if there's been a long introduction in separate runs, the first time they actually meet up you can expect a little bit of aggro. They have to get that out of the way before they settle down.

[wombatally]

Take it slow with a small flock, you can always test the water by letting them range together after they have hurled insults through a fence for a while but be ready to step in and pull them out if things get silly.

 

When they first get together they will look like they're battering each other for a while - that's just them establishing the pecking order and is necessary for their social status, it shouldn't take long though. I usually watch them at first in case someone gets really bullied but they seem to settle down once they've got it out of the way.

 

We have a large flock and have done about 6 intro's - one thing I have noticed it that they all get on but still wander around in the groups that we introduced them in.

 

Good luck!

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I would say it was 3 months before my girls got on totally. The first month was the worst, after that it was bearable but still not nice.

 

Now they're best pals .

[Silkiemum]

Had just logged on to post a similar please for advice as we are on day three of introducing two newbies to two oldies. Have been so stressed out by the thought this might go on forever and that we might never be able to put them together. Am releived that our two new girls are behaving so weel towards each other despite being new to each other themselves. However my two exisiting girls, Rachel and Phoebe, have really let the side down, piling into the other two and pinning them down with vicious blows. Although I had read about this, I had no idea how savage it was going to be.

 

We have all four in together at night (so far so good), in the same large WIR but separated by wire during the day and have had half an hour supervised together-time yesterday and today. We have tried not to intervene, although have had to in a couple of two-on-one pin-downs.

 

We were thinking of carrying on in this vein, hopefully extrending the time of these altogehter sessions day by day.

 

Any more suggestions on how to do this are very welcome.

 

One of the new girls just appears to have flown over the dividing wire (it is not full heght!) to the others. Time to learn how to clip wings, we think, in the interests of avoiding an unsupervised bloodbath!

[dancing cloud]

As others have said, you'll need to see how your particular flocks are reacting.

 

I've been really lucky that my girls are quite laid back. My first intro of 3 to 6 took about 8 days, though they remained as two groups until it got really cold and I made them all share one . What has really united them is my new intro (now 5 to 5).

 

They have been allowed to mingle with the newbies freely after a week, under strict supervision initially, and apart from a bit of shouting and bawling from Chance silly-hen there have been no real issues. The newbies haven't yet braved leaving the yard for the garden and there may be some chasing when they do, but I'm actually very proud of how well my "big" girls have behaved (just don't tell them!)