introducing new pullet to flock

[TinaLynn89]

Hi i brought in a new pullet she’s about 4 months old. she is a Easter Egger.

i’ve kept her separated with 2 other pullets who are only about 2 months old and she is like their mama. she is super sweet with them.

She is the sweetest and that may be the problem. we have 3 other older pullets that i have kept separated in the chicken run for 3 weeks now. At night i put the 3 new chickens in the coop with the others and in the morning i let them out and continue to keep them separated.

when i do test the 4 month old pullet with the older ones, 2 of them want to kill her. it’s not even a simple peck it’s using their claws and pulling out feathers. she does not stand up for herself at all.

any suggestions?

 

[nuthatched]

You need to let them hang out on either side of a fence (see but no touch method) for a few weeks until they get used to each other.
Did you quarantine her before putting your pullets with her?

 

[Mrs. K]

A couple of things will really help. A strange place is very intimidating to a bird, saps their confidence, they think they are not suppose to be there. And adding a single bird at the same time, everyone knows that bird is a stranger and should not be there.

So a trick that I have used that has worked very successfully but is a lot of dinking around. Put your older birds where you have your younger birds, and put your younger birds out in the run. Put ALL the younger birds out there together. Adding three birds to three birds will be much more successful and at 2 months they are big enough. This will allow your young birds to explore and get comfortable in the strange place. They will develop some territorial rights.

Now, sometimes you will get two old biddies that are just heartless. Keep those two in the other place, and put the one that ignores with the 3 younger birds, and do this for a couple of days. Then add ONE of the bullies. This bird will be outnumbered 4 to one. She may be a bit aggressive, but pecking and chasing 4 birds is hard work, and she will soon settle down. After several days (I told you it was a lot of dinking around) add the last one as late in the day as possible.

If all this fails (it has always worked for me, but I have a lot of space. Basically you are doubling your flock, do you really have that much room? Those pre-fab coops say they will fit 6 birds, but they won't, and I always worry about that when someone mentions 6 birds) But if all else fails, look for pin-less peepers for chickens. They have helped a lot of people.

Mrs K