# When & how to introduce new birds to flock



## desertlily (Jul 22, 2011)

I have 9 wk old chickens, they've been on their own since 4 wks when their mom went back to the flock. They have their own smaller coop (a tractor style coop), to roost in at night. Eventually, I will be butchering the roosters and keeping the hen. (I started with 5 - 2 hens and 3 roosters, but last night a coyote broke into their coop  and now I just have 2 roosters and 1 hen). Anyway, how old should she be when I introduce her to the bigger group's coop? And what's the best way to do it?

I have another hen who just started setting on 8 eggs, so I'll be getting more chicks in a few weeks, so this is something that I'd like to figure out how to make go smoothly. 

BTW in the bigger group I have 1 rooster and 6 hens. They're free range during the day and go into a locked tractor coop at night as well.


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## nubians2 (Feb 20, 2011)

Some of that depends on the breed of chicken you have. I started out with Rhode Island Reds. We hatched a chick under a neighbors hen. Yes only one chick hatched out of my eggs. It was hard to introduce one. I had to give her a box to hide in to get away from the older hens. I didn't free range then so she didn't have a chance to get away from them as easy. Now I have Brahmas which are a much more docile breed and I think I could easily add one younger one without too much problem and now I free range during the day which gives them more space. Your age is okay to add to the flock so I would do it in the day while you can keep track of her and hopefully she will make a friend throughout the day. They will pick on her to re-establish a pecking order but hopefully not too bad. Good luck!


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## DavyHollow (Jul 14, 2011)

What we do when introducing new chickens to the flock is keep them in a separate pen with an adjoining wall first. After that we sneak them into the coop while everyone is "asleep". In the morning, they are all there and the babies flee into the larger pen. Usually it takes a bit for them all to get used to each other, I put a small thing that only the younger ones can get into so they can escape if they need to. Really its a sink or swim moment, but they get over it easily. Sometimes the two "flocks" stay separate and just share the same area.


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## desertlily (Jul 22, 2011)

I think I'll try and make a space for her to get away from the other birds in the coop if she needs too, good idea. I have a V shaped chicken tractor, with the nesting boxes up high at one end of the coop. I'm sure I could design something for her on the ground below the nesting boxes.

Thanks everybody for the advice!!


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