Omlet Smart Autodoor - New in box

[jane carter]

Hi all

 

We have two 3 year old gingernut rangers (coco and shap) in an eglu and one week ago we bought 2 new point of lay (15 week old) chicks. For the last week the new girls have been in a parallel run next to our existing girls so they got used to each other. Last night as advised by local chicken keepers we put the new girls in to the eglu with the other chicks at bed time. This morning wel let them all out and there was instantly much squwacking, flapping, percking and chasing - we let the the birds out in to the larger run we have attached to the eglu and for the early morning all was quite(ish) with just the odd s"Ooops, word censored!"!

 

Since mid-morning however the old girls have chased the new chicks in to the house and won't let them out and periodically go in to 'have a go' at the new girls. The only time they appeared to tolerate the new girls was when they went in to lay and even then they had a bit of a s"Ooops, word censored!" first. They are jumping on the backs of the new girls and they appear terrified - they won't come out of the house now even if the old girls are locked out of the way.

 

We're really worried that the nw chicks won't eat or drink at this rate and that the four birds will never settle together.

 

What should we do tomorrow as we can't sit and watch them all day - any and all help and advice greatfully recieved.

 

J

[Egluntyne]

I'd separate them for a bit longer, and then take the intros slowly.

 

Some tips **here**

[jane carter]

really - even though they have been seperate for a week already ? the person we bought them from said that 24 hours was enough and we decided to be a bit more cautious.

 

j

[Guest]

You should rele take them out in the morning before they wake up.

 

Then after a week of that they can be together in the day.

[scarlettohara]

I got 2 new girls on 22 May and they went in together for the first time on Sunday just for the night until Wednesday and then in the WIR with the others, they had previously been fring together for 2 weeks after a week in a separate run.

[jane carter]

good morning everyone, i cant tell you how much i appreciate you all taking time to try and help- thanks

I took the babies back into their own run yesterday as i am a big softie and couldn't bear any more upset. My 2 old girls are back on their own now and looking smug! I am completely bemused by the advice on introducing new chickens which when i amalgamate it all looks like this-

-Make sure you put the new chicks in with the old at bedtime - which is about 10pm this time of year.

-Get up to take the new chicks out in the morning before they all wake up- which currently is 10 past 4 am

-let them see each other- fine, then free range them together- bit of a problem if you have no space to free-range

-separate the 'dominant' or bully chicken- so far this leaves me now with having to provide 3 runs and housing for 4 chickens.

-When they free-range make sure you are on hand to watch out for any 'bad' behaviour

-Some people say do all of this for up to a month before you finally put them in together!

Apart from sleeping i cant see that this gives me any time to actually get out to work.

I'm all for taking it slowly, and i so want to get it right, but this approach simply is not feasible! Has anyone done it differently where it's worked without having to employ all of these tactics?

cheers

jane

[chuckmum6]

My new girls lived in my spare ark for just over a week with the others circling them when they free ranged. I put food around the ark so that my old girls 'felt' like they were giving the food by the newbies rather than having it taken. I put them all in the cube at the weekend and that was that, apart from putting a cat box in the run, so they could find somewhere to hide from the inevitable chasing. I tried not to look to much as chickens can be really horrible. So long as they are not getting injured I would leave well alone. It will take longer the older the birds but a new natural pecking order will be established. Put food in a couple of places so they get a chance to have a sneaky eat whilst the others are busy elsewhere. Hang up some green to keep your old birds distracted add a could of perches too. It is hard and takes time, often a few feathers will be lost and the odd s"Ooops, word censored!" to the comb, but they need to sort out who is in charge! Good luck and do what you feel happiest with, but it will not be smooth sailing initially

[scarlettohara]

Get up to take the new chicks out in the morning before they all wake up- which currently is 10 past 4 am

 

It doesn't have to be before they are awake but before they go out into the run

[Sandychick]

It seems to me that no one introduction method suits everyones set up. I agree that introducing chickens shouldn't be taking up all of your time, or be quite that complicated

 

My conclusion to it all is that the less space they all have, the longer the introductions will take.If they have a big field in the day, and only confined at night, it would probably be ok to bung them all in together on day one. If there are 4 chickens in an eglu run all day, it would take considerably longer.

 

They will usually be ok together at night time, but that all changes when they wake up together - and at this time of year that means being up horribly early to seperate them again. If you have 2 seperate runs side by side, that is a great way to get them used to each other, and I would personally just leave it like that for a few weeks and let them sleep seperately. The longer the inroductions take, the less stress for everyone I think.

 

Is there any sace for them to free range? This is quite useful for the next stage of them getting used to each other. They need to have a bit of chasing and squarking to sort out the pecking order to start with - the more space they have to do that the better.

 

You will probably also find that the new chickens will be able to stand up for themselves better when they are a few weeks older and started laying. I have found they seem to get a rougher time if they are younger.

 

Hope I haven't complicated things further but overall, I would just take your time over introductions, and just enjoy your new chickens. I'm sure they will all look like best friends in a couple of months

[ISCA]

I have just introduced a single 12 week old pullet to five 18 weekers who have been together since they were 8 weeks old, so a slightly different scenario.There are many different methods of introducing new chickens and it does all get confusing. Also, I think each situation is different depending on the personalities of the chickens and the environment you have you set-up in.

 

My new hen was seperated in the WIR by Omlet netting during the day, at night she chose to go in the coop (she escaped via the netting to get in the coop at sunset from Day 1, so I let her put herself to bed each sunset). I allowed them to FR together from the begining and they were OK with this, a bit of pecking, strutting and sqwarking, but no outright violence. They then spent the evening in the WIR together after corn feeding and were again OK. After 5 days I removed the Omlet netting and they spent all day together in harmony so are now integrated. At feeding time the new chicken does get pushed away by the two bossy chickens, but she is persistent to say the least, and gets her fill eventually. At bedtime she sleeps on the coop floor whilst the other perch above her. She seems to know her place (bottom of the pecking order) but is fiesty enough to get her own way in the end. She is hen pecked, but not bullied or harrassed. And no injuries fortunately.

 

Others have far more traumatic introductions. I was lucky I think and they are similar ages from the same farm, so I think that helped. She is also an Orp who has made great friends with my other Orp, so she has a pal in the flock.

 

I think you need to apply all the advice you read in a way that suits you and your hens, keep an eye on them and take it as fast/ slow as you think is needed for your situation. I think it will be harder than my intro as there is a big age gap and the original duo are a well established team. A certain amount of hen pecking and confrontation has to be allowed in order to enforce the pecking order but overt bullying needs to be loooked out for and stopped. A water pistol and anti-peck spray may help (I used the latter for 1 day myself and others have sworn by it).

 

I hope it all works out. It is anxiety-inducing but you will get there in the end

[jomaxsmith]

I'm in almost exactly the same situation - I bought two 17 week old POL hybrids yesterday to join my two freeloading non laying 3 year old girls.

 

My set up is that my girls don't free range - they have an Eglu run with the extra 1 metre piece and a non-fox proof fenced chicken garden round the outside of it for daytime use.

 

Yesterday I put the new girls in the Eglu and run, and the old girls in the outside area. They completely ignored each other all day but I misjudged how dark it was at bedtime and tried to close them up together too early leading to a bit of fisticuffs and chasing . I eventually rounded them all up and put them together in the Eglu. This morning I opened up at 7am and the new girls were very subdued and looked like they'd received minor pecks to the combs. It took them ages to come out of the Eglu after I'd taken the old girls into their area. I honestly thought they'd died of shock

 

Tonight I don't know quite what to do - whether to put them in together again, keep riding the storm and hoping there's no major injury, or to pop the old girls in a box in the shed overnight. I might order some bumpa bits so that the old girls can't do any damage.

 

I've often read on here about people taking months to do introductions and have thought 'don't be so soft, they've got to sort themselves out' but when you see your previously lovely tempered hen attacking a 'baby' without mercy it is horrible

 

Hope your situation starts to get easier

 

Jo

[Egluntyne]

There are many ways of going about it, from the 'just pitch 'em all in together and let them fight it out themselves' method to the taking things uber cautiously system.

 

Really there is no right or wrong, and inevitably, there will be a degree of squabbling and squaring up, whichever way you do it, and it is not always easy to watch.

 

Why not cherry pick the bits of all the methods which take your fancy and tweak them so that they suit your lifestyle and work commitments.

 

So long as they can tolerate one another without major bloodshed, you have cracked it. Much of the argy bargy is just grand standing anyway.

 

Getting them to share treats, providing several feeders and drinkers, and escape routes, such as evergreen branches or boxes to hide in will all help.

[jane carter]

hi there all- thanks again for your chicken words of wisdom! heres an update- i have 'cherry picked' the advice/s given and put the babies in their cat box with facilities in a dog crate in the chicken wire run where i let the older chicks out to play. I now know that everyone is safe, can still see each other, and i can relax and enjoy my chickens! I let the old girls out to play and they went straight for the babies who are still scared and hide at the back of their 'run', the babies havent figured out that they cant be 'got' yet- which shows you just how frightened they must have been yesterday, and how it was the right thing to do to separate them again. i scattered feed and sweetcorn treats round the babies run, but im not sure my old dears are so easily fooled!I'm going to keep it this way for at least a week before i reassess, and let each 'flock' out to play in turn. Hmmm....all will be well....at least for the rest of the week!

keep me posted if any more bright ideas!

Jane

[laurmurf]

if the new ones are only about 15 weeks then they really are quite young to be amalgamated in with older chooks. I presume they were sold to you as POL? That's usually about 18+weeks. They will need to 'grow up' a bit before they can stand up for themselves with the old ladies in any event.

 

good luck with the intros (i'm one of the ones who took 8 weeks to do them).

[Janet G]

No bright ideas here but more a plea for help too. We've been introducing 2 pols to 2 older hens for over 2 weeks now. We have 2 coops & runs, & for over a week all 4 have been free ranging together but sleeping separately. There's less bullying than at first except at bedtime. For the last few days the young'uns have wanted to sleep in the main run with the 2 oldies leading to bust-ups as they are rebuffed. This means we always have to be around at bedtime to make sure they are safe in their own run. The head hen isn't the main bully. We are wondering what would be the consequences if we part these 2, put the bully into the second coop / run & let the head hen & newbies free range & then sleep together, & eventually reintegrate the bully after a few days. Has anyone tried this & when would be the best time of day to start the new regime? Would head hen take up the cudgels instead? Or is it best not to keep interfering?

I can't believe the problems we're having as twice before we've introduced hens & they've all slept together from the first night, but they were all lovely docile birds, as are our new ones.

 

Janet.

[Egluntyne]

It might be worth denying the older hens access to their coop, so that they will have to bunk up with the new girls on their territory. It might wrong foot them sufficiently that they behave.

[Redwing]

Thats not a bad plan Janet, the bully should slide down the pecking order while she is away

[hunkydoory]

Can't emphasise enough about how much the new girls will grow over the coming weeks. From a pair of 17/18 week old girls with almost no combs in April I now have 2 'huge' chickens - and the point about space, even in a really small garden not being in the confines of a run allows them to really flap their wings and experience different textures under their feet.

 

I had terrible trouble introducing the 2 mentioned above to 4 year old Betty (Psycho Chicken). But after Betty 'fell off her perch' a couple of weeks later I decided that keeping 3 birds would be better and so found a Pied Sulfolk who was a similar age to the remaining 2. Initially all was well, the pecking order was well established and then after abour 5 weeks had passed, I needed to leave them in the run together all day (the space thing) - disaster!!! I came home to find a very bald and partially skinned Pied Sulfolk. If you have the facility to keep them in separate accomodation I would take full advantage of not having to rush things. We don't have a second run and our Pied Sulfolk who is on the mend sleeps in the garage at night and I rotate them all through the run, fenced but not fox proof area and free ranging. When we are at a point of reintroduction I plan to remove the bully and diorientate her so that the other 2 have a chance to bond.

[Snoxy]

I have just successfully completed my fifth set of introductions...Phoebe and Harriet

 

This is what I did...I kept Phoebe and Harriet in the Eglu and run within the free-ranging area for two weeks (I have found 2 weeks minimum has worked for all introductions fortunately). During this time I put corn along the edge of the Eglu run and free-ranging area so they could eat very close to each other. On the 14th evening about an hour and a half after the other girls had gone to bed and when it was dark I put Phoebe and Harriet in the hen-house on the middle roosting bars...this is usually the one that has the most space...I dabbed a little Olbas Oil on the back of Phoebe and Harriet's necks before I put them in. In the morning I popped into the hen-house at around 6.30am and grabbed them quietly and popped them out into the free-ranging area...then at 7am I let the other girls out...this is the usual time I let them out. I watched them for a while and if there is any pecking etc I squirt the offender with water. If Mildred who is the usual bully when new girls start free-ranging starts her antics I put my hand on her back and hold her down for a couple of minutes. I have put Mildred into the Eglu and run for at least two days on her own when I have introduced new girls in the past. I found the water sprayer was a very good deterrant

 

Good luck

[hippy chick]

Hi Snoxy, this is probably a dumb question but......whats the olbas oil for?

 

Jilly

[Janet G]

Thanks for the help. We're going to try divide & rule & put Bully in the eglu & run so that Head hen & new hens can free range & then roost in the cube. The new ones were desperate again tonight to sleep in the cube, & although head hen seemed to be trying to keep them out of that run she's nowhere near as aggressive. Also when the Bully tried to join in, head hen pecked her twice & appeared to shoo her off to bed. Quite pleasing to see, somehow. We have never yet managed to make the bully go down, mostly can't get close enough to lay a hand on her. Bully goes in the house first - would that be normal for the head to roost last, she seemed to be waiting for the new ones to go off to their run before she could roost. Fascinating to watch all the toing & froing, & trying to make sense of it all.

Thanks again for the replies, I was slightly beginning to give up hope of sorting this out. I can't believe how easy we've had it in the past, must have been beginner's luck.

 

Janet

[Janet G]

ps Jilly / Snoxy, forgot to mention this - is the olbas oil for the same reason as the anti - peck, which we tried & had no effect? Do you reckon that's good to stop bully having a go, presumably because it's so strong smelling. I shall certainly try it. Mind, one of my cats loves the smell of it, it sort of sends her like catnip, she'll be following the poor hen all round the garden. Keep the Bully off though with the cat in attendance.

 

Janet

[Snoxy]

Sorry for the delay in replying...missed this when I logged on before

 

I read somewhere that the smell of Olbas oil is unpleasant to the other chickens...seems to have worked very well here