Raising Chickens For Dummies by Kimberley Willis & Rob Ludlow

Author:Kimberley Willis & Rob Ludlow [Willis, Kimberley & Ludlow, Rob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781119675952
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2019-11-18T00:00:00+00:00

Introducing new birds carefully

You want to limit new introductions to your chicken flock for two good reasons. First, you risk introducing disease to your existing flock (see the earlier section “Knowing when to quarantine your chickens” for advice on how to avoid that calamity). Second, you introduce stress because all chicken flocks have a ranking system, or pecking order. (We discuss basic chicken behavior in more detail in Chapter 2.) Every time you add or remove a bird, the order changes, causing fighting and disorder in the flock.

Unless a chicken has been alone and is pining for friends, it generally doesn’t like new birds and may viciously attack newcomers. Before a new ranking order is established and the new birds become part of the flock, you may witness bloodshed or even death. However, you can keep order with some strategies.

First, never introduce a new rooster into a flock with an established rooster. One or both of the birds may die in this case. If you want to breed a new rooster with your hens, you need to either divide the housing, runs, and ladies or remove the old rooster. A very young rooster that grows up with the flock sometimes is tolerated, but don’t add a cockerel (young rooster) older than 6 weeks of age.

A rooster introduced to a flock of all hens typically has few problems. Sometimes a hen or two will challenge him, but he will quickly become lord and master.

Adding some new hens to old hens is the most frequent type of introduction in small flocks. Don’t just toss the new birds in and hope for the best, though. If you’ve ever watched females of any species fight, you know how vicious they can get. Try to introduce more than one bird at a time, to divide up the bullying a bit.

If you can move all the birds to new quarters, old and new, less fighting will ensue. Another way to introduce new birds is to put them in a cage or enclosure next to the old flock members for a few days. The old birds can let them know who’s boss without actually harming them.

Usually, young hens allow older birds to dominate them if the older ones are active and healthy. But sometimes the tables get turned and an older bird gets the worst of it. Different breeds are sometimes more assertive or aggressive. Silkies, Polish, and other breeds with topknots or crests, along with Cochins and some of the smaller bantam breeds, may be bullied by younger birds of large active breeds.

If you can’t pen newcomers nearby for a few days, put them in the pen at night, after the regular flock has gone to bed. Then keep a close eye on the flock in the morning. Or release new birds into the shelter area of a coop after the old birds are let out to do a little free roaming.

Expect some fighting, and don’t interfere unless a bird is injured and bleeding. The flock is establishing a new order, and when they all know their places, the fighting will cease.

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