HELP aggressive chicken

[chixandthecity]

Question is, should we let the new ones into the run and separate the existing one (who is VERY dominant) or leave her as she is, and keep the new ones in makeshift run to start with. I just thought it might make more sense to keep the new two in the large run where they will live anyway, and let the bossy one be separate and see the new ones in 'her' space.

 

Any thoughths/experiences please?

 

Thanks!

[Reikiranf]

I did this last year, I spent ages dividing the extended eglu run into 2 with over 30 bamboo canes, only for my new girls to get through the seemingly impenetratable barrier within minutes.

 

So I removed the barrier and let them get on with it! I had to put 2 extra feeding stations in and another glug as Lulu was a little minx and would dash up and down to try and stop Bella and Fifi eating & drinking but she couldn't cover 3 bowls of food and 2 glugs at the same time. She was a bit of a beast and kept tugging at their tail feathers, Seagazer and I got new girls quite close together and we thought that the worry of integrating them would give us ulcers Oddly I noticed that when I watched them from indoors all seemed well, but Lulu would play up when I was out with them, it was almost as if her aggressiveness was showing her ownership of me

 

However after a week I realised that Lulu had accepted her new friends when I saw her letting Fifi clean her beak

[chixandthecity]

Well, I must admit I am tempted to just put them together and let them get on with it!

 

We have an Eglu in a purpose built run. We also have a spare run with a shelter which we bought last time we got new ones, so the option of having them totally separate is there. Just not sure which way round to do it. Would be easier to keep the two new ones in the main run and shift our existing hen to the temp one, or is that a bad idea. I don't know.

 

I'm sure there'll be s"Ooops, word censored!"ping no matter what we do!

[kinsk]

I had to do this a couple of weeks ago, two new young ones to one existing hen who had always been the dominant one.

 

After the existing one had gone to bed and been shut in, I waited an hour or so, the posted the two new ones in through the hatch on the eglu, so everyone was pretty much asleep.

 

Let them all out into the run together in the morning, I did put an extra bowl of feed in for the first few days, but everyone was pretty much fine, certainly no fighting. I did leave them confined to the run for 8 days, then let them out to free range.

[Reikiranf]

I sometimes think we worry too much, my neighbour got 3 chickens and a few weeks after that introduced 1 new one, and then months later introduced another new one to the 4 they already had!

 

But perhaps we've just been lucky, I know some people have a horrendous time with blood being drawn Good luck whatever you decide

[C&T]

We had to introduce 2 new to 1 old. All in together, and they were fine...

 

Had extra food and water, and canes pushed through the run just so they couldn't chase each other easily, and lots of free ranging and all was OK.

 

But, I know it's not always, and there is a risk of introducing disease to the original hen if there is no quarantine period...

[coco]

I have done four lots of intos. The first one took about two weeks, the next one four months but the last one only took a week.

With all of them I have kept the new hens seperate for a week to make sure they are healthy. With the last one I spent most of a weekend supervising, I think it helped that the new hens were about 8 months old and quite capable of standing up for themselves.