Topic: more girls

[chicken girl]

I would like to add 2 more hens to the 2 31 week old black rocks I
already have any suggestions on how best to do this would be great  :) :) :)

                                 Chicken Girl ( Jan )

[rog_pete]

we have recently introduced 5 new birds to our 3 Rhode Island Reds, we read alot about it but didnt follow any advice.  We were told, to, put them in the coupe at night with other girls and in morning all would be fine etc etc

what we decided to do was to separate an area of our run off, put the new girls in it then let our girls out of the house.  They had about 20-30 mins next to one another checking each other out and then we let them all in together.  We had a few fights and squabbles but nothing serious...

For the first week it was obvious that we had 2 different flocks, they hanged around in their original groups ad then after a few days all was calm and they were happy playing together!  The youngest bird is now top bird... quite funny really

expect some fights but its all natural until the new pecking order is sorted

[jonny211]

Hiya CG,

'Prolly sounds obvious but two lots of feeders and waterers out to minimise fighting over food. Also if you have them in a run put something in the centre of it, as they'll chase round and round it.

I also found perches a few feet off the ground in the corners provide somewhere for chooks to lick their wounds for a while.

Good luck!

Jon

[Morris]

We added 2 new girls to our existing speckeldy when her partner died. 

We were advised to put the new birds directly into the roost after dusk and shut them in together.  Apparently they never fight in the roost and will have plenty of time to get to know each other in the dark!  Leave them shut up with no food or water until after lunch.  Then let them out - they will be so hungry and thirsty they will eat/drink before doing anything else, and by the time they are satisfied they will have accepted each other. 

I was a bit worried about leaving them shut up, but did as we were advised by the breeder we got both sets of birds from.  I was also worried about our existing girl being picked on.  But it worked perfectly and they were fine.  There was no pecking or bullying.  At first, the old bird was boss, but after a while the biggest, one of the newcomers, took over top spot.

I know we only had 1 existing chicken, but the breeder said this is what she advises when adding new birds to a new flock in general.

Good luck!