New Chicken

[R.I.P -tetra]

Today we went to a feed store and got a new chicken, because of the death of tetra, tapioca was not laying.
back to what I was saying we got a new chicken (Houdini) and they don;t exactly get along tapioca keeps pecking and attacking her but Houdini is a lot bigger I'm worried about them.

Also Houdini is very skittish she runs around and tries to escape. when I try to pick her up she freaks out, runs into the fence, and jumps. when I tried to put her in the large coop she bit me!

any advice is appreciated

 

[tastyacres]

How old is Tapioca?

Where do you live (state, etc)?

This is is probably not much older than a week old... So this chick should be inside with a heat lamp for the next few weeks (3-weeks or so).

I would go ahead and bring this chick in and in a few weeks try introducing her again.

Sorry, you lost your chicken.

 

[Lalo Moreno]

You should quarantine any new chicken for a month. You could risk loosing both. Once you established that she is not sick you can introduce them. First place her in a cage where Tapioca can see her but not touch. Then you can let her out to peck. They will fight a lot, this is normal. Only intervene when blood is drawn or the fight looks way too serious.

 

[aart]

Today we went to a feed store and got a new chicken, because of the death of tetra, tapioca was not laying.
back to what I was saying we got a new chicken (Houdini) and they don;t exactly get along tapioca keeps pecking and attacking her but Houdini is a lot bigger I'm worried about them.

Also Houdini is very skittish she runs around and tries to escape. when I try to pick her up she freaks out, runs into the fence, and jumps. when I tried to put her in the large coop she bit me!

any advice is appreciated

How old are these birds?
What did the other chicken die from?(sorry for your loss)
Getting a new bird will not make the old one start laying, the stress of integration can stop laying.

Integration Basics:
It's all about territory and resources(space/food/water).
Existing birds will almost always attack new ones to defend their resources.
Understanding chicken behaviors is essential to integrating new birds into your flock.

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact.

In adjacent runs, spread scratch grains along the dividing mesh, best if mesh is just big enough for birds to stick their head thru, so they get used to eating together.

The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no copious blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down and beaten unmercilessly, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide 'out of line of sight'(but not a dead end trap) and/or up and away from any bully birds. Roosts, pallets or boards leaned up against walls or up on concrete blocks, old chairs tables, branches, logs, stumps out in the run can really help. Lots of diversion and places to 'hide' instead of bare wide open run.

This used to be a better search, new format has reduced it's efficacy, but still:
Read up on integration..... BYC advanced search>titles only>integration
This is good place to start reading, BUT some info is outdated IMO:
http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock

 

[azygous]

Yes, please inform us of the age of this new "chicken". How one goes about integrating a new chicken depends a lot on the age. Baby chicks need more protection from larger birds.

It's kind of useless to try to give advice without important pieces of information, including what killed (predator or disease) the chicken you are replacing. You could have a deadly virus present in your flock that may infect this new chicken, too.

 

[venymae]

You've gotten a lot of good advice! Hope everything goes well with your new chicken and old! Sorry about your previous one passing away. Let us know how things turn out!

 

[R.I.P -tetra]

How old are these birds?
What did the other chicken die from?(sorry for your loss)
Getting a new bird will not make the old one start laying, the stress of integration can stop laying.

Integration Basics:
It's all about territory and resources(space/food/water).
Existing birds will almost always attack new ones to defend their resources.
Understanding chicken behaviors is essential to integrating new birds into your flock.

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact.

In adjacent runs, spread scratch grains along the dividing mesh, best if mesh is just big enough for birds to stick their head thru, so they get used to eating together.

The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no copious blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down and beaten unmercilessly, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide 'out of line of sight'(but not a dead end trap) and/or up and away from any bully birds. Roosts, pallets or boards leaned up against walls or up on concrete blocks, old chairs tables, branches, logs, stumps out in the run can really help. Lots of diversion and places to 'hide' instead of bare wide open run.

This used to be a better search, new format has reduced it's efficacy, but still:
Read up on integration..... BYC advanced search>titles only>integration
This is good place to start reading, BUT some info is outdated IMO:
http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock

Thank you for the information we wish you told us this before because we kind of need the information before now but will use it now thank you and there are both 8 months old the old one that we had and the new one and the old chicken we don't know what happened to her but we assume a hawk or a fox or a weasel got her.