Adding New Flock Members

The Internet has much advice about adding new chicks or pullets to an existing flock.

 'Let there be no doubt: adding new birds to your pre-existing crew can be stressful, both to you and the birds. Your flock, peaceful because every hen knows her place in the pecking order, will be thrown all out of whack by the addition of newcomers. Every hen will once again have to vie for her spot on the pecking order. At times it can seem like all-out war! The good news: it only lasts about a week, and there are a few things you can do to make it much easier on all of you.' says mypetchicken.com

Then I found all sorts of advice for how to integrate the new chicks with old.  One suggestion was to put the new chicks on the roost at night next to the grown chicks.  When everyone wakes in the morning they will think the other one has always been there.  Another suggestion is to wait until the new chicks are as big as the old flock members before commingling the girls.  Both of these items we ignored.

Instead, mainly do to space constraints and the fact that I did not want smelly chickens in my basement, we moved the chicks into the large chicken coop during the day when they were about five weeks old.   However, we kept them separated from the rest of the flock.  Everyone could see each other but not touch each other.  At six weeks of age, we started letting the chicks sleep in the large coop with the rest of the flock but again they were kept in a cage on the floor protected from the others.  The morning after their first sleepover, I went in the coop to let the chicks out I found them surrounded by Winifred, Marion and Ellen.  Everyone was just staring at each other.  And then last Monday, we removed all barriers and let the flock commingle.

One suggestion I had read was that if you were intending to make any physical changes to your chicken shed now was the time to do it.  That way the old flock would be in a state of flux even before the new members were added.  So that is what we did.  Mike added four more nests to the inside of the coop and a second roost over the old roost.

Then last Monday we took off the partition that separated the chicks from the rest of the flock.  The old flock members came in to investigate the new chicks.  For the most part the new chicks remained together.  However, curiosity eventually overcame them and they moved off to investigate the parts of the chicken run they had not seen yet.  Mike and I kept watch for twenty minutes or so.  The only aggressive action we saw came from Marion who would run up and peck at the little chicks that looked just like her.

Winifred was the first to come check out the newcomers

Here four of the newcomers move in mass to check out the rest of the coop.
Winifred joins them with no problems.  

It has been a week now and we have seen many changes.  At first the flock kept to their segregated groups even though there was no longer anything separating them.  It took about twenty four hours for the newcomers to tentatively explore every inch of the combine chicken area but whatever area they were in the old flock moved elsewhere.  Now there seems to be much more mingling among the two groups especially at night.  

After Mike and I came home from the ball game that first day, we checked the main coop.  Winifred, Marion and Ellen were on the roosts.  The babies were all huddled on the floor by the outside door.  This was the approximate location of the cage we had been keeping them in which I had removed.  However, a free nights later this is what Mike saw.  The new chicks were using the roosts.  

Winifred and Ellen standing on the lower roost.
Marion tucked into the right hand corner toward the bottom and
the new chicks on the upper roost.
Who is the head of the pecking order now?

However, even that changed last night.  Then Mike saw all the baby chicks and Winifred on the top roost with Marion and Ellen on the bottom roost.  So I remain a bit confused about how the pecking order has come out but at least we have not had any violence.  I would say that we have managed this transition rather peacefully.  Thank goodness!