alicopie Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 Hi everyone i have just bought 3 new chucks and put them in with my 2 year old ladies.. i did seperate then to start with but now they are together and 2 of the older ones will not leave the young ones alone they keep biting the back of there necks.. could you tell me if they will calm down or could they harm the young ones alison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sage Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 Hi, How old are the new girls and how long did you keep them apart. I have just introduce 2 17 week old to 4 ex bats and all in all it took about 4 weeks. First 2 weeks total seperation but within sight of each other, then 30 mins together in the garden for a few days with supervision. Next was supervised free ranging/ run time gradually increasing the time together. Sage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alicopie Posted September 15, 2011 Author Share Posted September 15, 2011 Hi the new ones are pol so i should imagine about 18 weeks although they are as big as the old ones.. they were only seperated for a day as they all had to sleep in the same hen house as i couldnt put another one in there.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 Keep an eye on things, because they can cause severe injury - any bleeding and you will need to remove the injured hen, even if the wound itself isn't severe, because they will go on pecking once they see blood. There's a good chance however that this is just them sorting out the pecking order - it's normal for the top hen(s) to jump on the others and make them submit. Have you got separate food and water stations so they have a chance to get to the food? An ice-cream container or similar will do. And can you put anything in there for the newbies to perch on, so they can get out of the way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanTheDiver Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 I have just introduced three new girls to three old girls. From day one they have been sleeping and FR together and there have been squabbles and a few vicious looking attacks by one of my old girls but a quick squirt of a water jet usually sorts that out Nearly three weeks later and they are nearly fully integrated. We had a problem with the new girls not coming into the cube run when the old girls were locked in there, but this morning I kept them all locked in until 11am and they all came into the run by themselves. We had a few squabbles but nothing serious and one of the new girls even laid an egg in the nest so she can't have been too stressed about it; they were all eating & drinking too, so a bit more of this and I think we will be totally there. Hope yours goes as well, but do keep the water jet handy; it does work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
