We have all heard of the phrase “the pecking order”. Chickens establish a hierarchial order in their flock. This is thought to have evolved over many thousands of years in the jungle fowl of South East Asia. The pecking order allowed the flock to eat in turn and peacefully when food was available. If they were fighting at these times, they would be wasting their opportunity to eat and attracting attention to themselves from predators.
The pecking order is still well and truly with the hens of today and hens can be incredibly cruel to newcomers. If you are mixing hens that aren’t used to one another, you should make sure you are around to keep an eye open for trouble. The following points may help:
- Place newcomers behind a fence or in a small run for a week so that they can get used to their new surroundings and get used to one another.
- Introduce a new hen at night to the coop when it is dark. Place her amongst the other hens. They will not fight in the dark and it will give the others a chance to get used to the new smell.
- If pecking takes place, leave them to get on with it as much as you can. They have to establish the new pecking order but…
- If blood is drawn at any point, remove the hen and try again when the injury has healed. Chickens are attracted to red and will peck blood very quickly.
- You may want to try removing the hen that is fighting with the newcomer to the flock for a little while until the new hen has settled into the flock, then put the trouble maker back in.
If you are still having difficulty with the hens getting along, you can try an Anti-peck spray and if you have real problems, ‘bumpa bits‘ can be fitted to the beak for a while. These stop the end of the beak closing completely so prevent her from causing damage to other hens but she is still able to eat and drink normally.
I have trained my girls to return to their coop immediately by ringing a bell and it only took 3 days for them to learn!
When they come out for their daily meander, I take a jug of mealworms previously soaked in boiled water and my bell with me, when I want them in I ring the bell and they literally run into the flight to await their reward.
Last summer; while I was out with the girls at 1pm a fox came through my hedge! Luckily I saw it early enough to ring the bell and the girls went safely in while I chased the fox away.
Teaching them this trick probably saved a few lives and certainly saves me having to chase them around to get them in. Bulk amounts of mealworms can be purchased from online auction sites and last for ages!
I have a Warren and a White Star, both a year old. Yesterday bought a Specklady and a Sussex Star. I left the newbies in the run and let the oldies run in the garden. Only have the one house though and they were still making a racket at 1030pm, as we have several neighbours I removed the newbies and put them in cat box overnight in kitchen. I think the Warren is the main culprit, so I think I will remove her tonight if she plays up? I can’t really let them sort it out at night due to neighbours, I was prepared for coping with bullying, but not the noise of established chickens! Very vociferous!
I hope they settle in and all settle down!
Eventually resorted to newbies in cat box overnight for a good week, and ninja depositing them in coop after dark after about a week. Divided the run in half for about two weeks, so had to nip out at 6 am to put newbies in other half of run. After two weeks just left them to it! There has been some squabbling, but now after six weeks they are a happy flock, and all laying!
After reading loads of stuff on this, I realise the two week introduction \ getting to know each other really is true, and unfortunately can’t be rushed!
Advice to others, be patient, and when upset, chickens can be extremely noisy, if you have neighbours, have a strategy in place to keep them quiet!!!!
Our neighbours had 3 hens but 2 of them picked on the 3rd until she had lost her feathers by her tail. They got rid of the dominant hens leaving Edna on her own for about 2 years. She was kept in a coop all day and let out on to a paved patio for about 20 minutes a day.
On March 23rd of this year they gave Edna to us along with coop, bedding, food, etc. We bought her a metre square run to which we stapled wire on the bottom to protect her from predators. The coop stands on paving slabs making it impregnable. All day,every day, she has access to our fairly large garden and she was so happy with the set up she gave us our first egg on March 25th and has continued to do so 4 or 5 times a week.
Edna has made friends with our 2 cats, one of which spends most of the day sitting with her. As soon as she sees us she comes running to us and we think she loves company.
We would like to know whether we could introduce another hen, We think she is about 4 years old but as she has lived on her own for so long we are worried in case she is either picked on or attacks the new comer. We have a bird feeder in the same garden that she is in and she enjoys the seeds the birds drop. If any birds try taking ‘her seeds’ she chases them off – their place is on the feeder supplying her with extra food!
She has become a firm favourite with us and the 2 young children next door and makes everybody laugh with her antics. Her former ‘family’ have all commented on how much happier she is in her new environment.
Wish we’d got chickens earlier.
Hello Tim,
Chickens are flock animals and it’s not natural for her to be on her own. She’s getting on (to put it bluntly) so introducing a new hen could cause her some stress and considering what a lovely life you have given her, I’m tempted to say leave things alone, however if you do decide to get her a companion, I can offer this advice… If you try to find her an older hen (2 yr or older would be best). When introducing hens, they will often squabble and it can be horrible as one will pick on the other although older hens tend to squabble less. You should try to leave them together unless blood is drawn and after a week or two they will settle down. It helps if you can put hens in runs next to one another so they can get used to one another first. Introducing hens at night into the coop when it’s dark is a good idea and then being there as it gets light is essential. Letting them out into a large area is good because bullied hens can escape.
Thanks for the information. I spoke to Edna’s previous owner yesterday and told her what I had asked you. She said they tried to introduce another hen but Edna went for her big time! She’s seems happy having the cats and us as company so I think we’ll leave on her own. Besides, she hasn’t got any competition for the strawberries!
I had one chicken, she is about 8 weeks old now, the other day I went and bought a new one (22 weeks). I introduced them at night as advised, but the younger one is terrified of the elder, and now the elder keeps pecking at her. (although she has not drawn blood at all). I have tried letting them out together, as well as separately, and the younger one just wont let the other one anywhere near her. Will things settle?
8 weeks is too young – she needs to be around 20+ weeks Point of Lay to be the same size and able to stick up for herself. From a disease point of view, mixing young age hens with older hens isn’t advisable either because they take time to build up immunity to diseases which some older birds can carry without clinical symptoms.
With introductions, they usually settle eventually – It takes a couple of weeks at times – but she isn’t on the same playing field at the moment being only 8 weeks old.
Things did settle. They are getting on well now and the elder is looking out for the younger one now. It’s great to watch
Great, thanks for the feedback.