Adding pullets

[Black horse farm]

We took in a handicap and a friend of hers (hens) now the handicap we call Thelma and her friend is Louise. Louise has already acclimated with our flock however Thelma the handicap has not. They will let her in the coop at night but during the day they don’t want her around. We’re picking up some younger hens today I was wondering if putting the younger ones in a different coop with Thelma would be a good idea. They are younger pullets were picking up and I don’t think they would try to boss her around as much but I’m not sure would that affect the new pullets ability to become part of the flock or would the two coops form one flock from free ranging all day together? If I should post this elsewhere please let me know. Pictures of Thelma attached. She was stepped on as a chick before we received her. she walks poorly and has bad balance but she’s nice and once she molts she’ll be beautiful again I just want a nice life for her unstressed so whatever I can do for her I’d like to do if that means adding another coop so be it.

 

[thecatumbrella]

Awww, Thelma's so sweet! I don't have any firsthand experience, but if it were me, I would try to integrate Thelma with the new pullets in a new area (in the hopes that it would dampen territorial skirmishes because everyone's getting traumatized with the new space at once). After that, you could try to get everyone together as a single flock, but if that's unsuccessful, you could continue to run them as two separate flocks.

My two cents. Hopefully someone that knows more can chime in.