Introducing new birds

[Jean]

I checked through ten pages and could not find this topic, so I will ask.  What do YOU do when you need to introduce a few more birds to the flock?

I have 3-4 20-22 week old pullets each in the buff, blue and black variety to add to my three coops.  I only have 6-7 blues and blacks and around 13 buff hens.

My thought is to change out the rooster when I add the younger girls to the flock.  I think it may cause alot of confusion and help the newer birds settle in easier with less \"buttkickings\".

I am pretty sure this will work with my buff hens as they are pretty docile.  I added one pullet to my blue pen after she was done with her quarantine (show bird) and the rooster did not put up with any fighting among the hens.  He put a stop to it right away and everyone was happy in about an hour.

Now, my black hens are down right mean.  They even pick on the rooster.  I hear him scream about every half hour or so when they pull another feather out of him.  I am hoping that putting an older more dominant rooster in will help.

Any and all suggestions would be appreciated.

Jean

[Mike Gilbert]

Jean, here is what I like to do in that situation.   I remove the existing birds first, then clean the pen and perhaps rearrange the feeders, waterers and roost if possible.   In other words I try to change the scenery as much as possible.   Then I put the new birds in for a day or two before putting the old birds back in.   This gives them a chance to get settled in and more confident before they have to deal with establishing  a new pecking order.  You might even think about returning the old birds one at a time, a half hour or so apart, if they are quite aggressive.   That way it is less likely the old birds will gang up on the new ones.  

[grisaboy]

Here is what I do.
 I never introduce just one new bird to a flock (unless it is a full grown proven male with a bunch of hens), it will almost always get beat up.  I put several new birds in the pen so everybody is fighting everyone else and not one bird is singled out.
The other thing I do is put in boards or other things in the pen so the losers have something to hide behind.  
If there are one or two very aggressive birds in the pen, I will take them out until things get settled, and then put them back in.
Introducing young birds to a pen is usually not a problem, because they will usually defer quickly to the older birds.  As long as they have some place to get away from the older birds, they will be fine.  Introducing older birds is more challenging, because they all want to be boss.  This is true for hens as well as roosters.  They will fight, but this won\'t take long if there are plenty of new birds so no one gets singled out and ganged up on and if there is plenty of space and hiding places for the losers to get away.

Curtis

[Guest]

First we always keep new birds in quarantine for 30 days just to be sure they are ok.
 What we then do is always use a smaller pen in side the large pen so the other birds can see but not fight.
 Keep them this way for a week or so.  then one night put  the new bird or birds on the roost and everything goes fairly well in the morning for the most part anyway.

Charlie

[Guest]

When I introduced my 24 new young pullets to my small flock of 5 adult hens, I just took the young ones over after dark and put them in the coop while the adults were sleeping. In the morning,everyone woke up together and there were no big problems.