Need Some Guidance Integrating New Adult Hens

[terrilhb]

I let my chickens see the new ones for about a week through a fence. Then when I am ready to put them in I wait until everyone has gone to roost at night. I put the new hen or hens in and they wake up together in the morning. I keep an eye out for any bad bullying. But knock on wood so far I have had no serious injuries with chickens. Dont ask me though how it goes with guineas. Cause I have had no sucess there.

 

[lcertuche]

I know this is an old post, I just noticed it but I thought I would throw in my 2 cents anyway. With spring around the corner people will be getting more chicks/chickens.

I love the thought about driving the chickens in the truck, lol. You definitely need to isolate them longer than a day for health precautions.

I like to find a non-aggressive hen/pullet to put in with the new birds after a couple of weeks of them being separate but able to see as through a fence or cage. I will put the old girl with the new birds at night. They will stay together for a few days and then I will turn them out with the old ones, again at night. The next morning, after adding I usually just normal 'get out of my way' attitudes and the newer birds catch on quick even the very young.

If there is a big size difference you may want to pen up the juveniles at night, however. I had some large birds land on the smaller ones injuring them when coming off the perch in the morning, one or two died from the accident. It wasn't intentional, just bad luck for the small birds.