Introducing a New Chicken

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.

158 Comments

  1. My chicks peck each other all the time and none of them have feathers on the tail or back and ive tried evrything and nothing worked what should i do now?

    • Once they get into this habit, it is hard to break. I would try separating them into smaller groups. Red heat lamp bulbs can reduce feather pecking. Ensure they are kept in a big enough area with enough to scratch, provide green grass daily and enough crumb.

  2. Hi, I have 9 baby chickens which have been in a separate pen with the clocker that sat on the eggs, she is still quite protective over them, they are 8 weeks old now and quite big, they are Sussex chickens, is it safe now to open the adjoining gate and let our 4 older girls wander in and out, they do have separate water and food, but I am a bit worried about the older girls bullying, I know it will happen what with the pecking order etc. or is it to early?

    • You shouldn’t mix them until they are the same size as the adult hens. This is mainly for bullying but also because of disease. Older hens have built up resistance to certain diseases but can carry them and pass them to the youngsters.

    • Cocks are different, they should be very pleased to see hens and will usually settle in very quickly (if they are mature enough). Sometimes the top hen will argue a little but usually backs down.

  3. Hi,
    I have 2 Black Rocks (2 years old) and did have 3 welsummers (10 weeks old) until a fox took 2 of the young welsummers, our 1 remaining welsummer is visibly lonely and keeps looking for the other 2. Is it worth getting more chickens her size or just let her try and join in with the black rocks (considerably bigger).

    Advice would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks in advance

    • You could try mixing them, she may be OK if they have enough space – but if she can’t settle because of her size, it may be better to get 2 more that are her size.

  4. We have just purchased 10 hens, 24- 26 weeks old. They have a secure run and a purpose built coop, big enought for 15 – 20 chickens. How do you make the chickens go into the coop. They kept running around it until we caught them and put them inside. Should we have put them inside immediately, to save the added stress of catching them. If this is the case, when do we let them out again.

    • At night time, they will naturally want to roost – once they know where to roost, they will continue to go to the same place.

      Put them in every night and within a week, you should find they go in on their own.

      • put a small light in the coop, naturally nosey as they the birds will go in to investigate, when in , door shut and light off !!

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