The second time was the charm. The first attempt at trying to integrate new pullets to our existing flock was terrible (all kinds of mistakes made and they were all my fault!); but that's a separate story.
After doing more appropriate "research", I waited until our new pullets were 9 weeks old (at 8 weeks, the white pullet seemed a little too small yet; she was bullied pretty significantly at the last go-round and I wanted to make sure she was big enough).
The new pullets were in an open cage within the overall chicken coop for several weeks prior so that everyone could become familiar with each other. After opening up the coop one morning this week, I also opened the door on the pullet's cage and just left it. All of the adult chickens rushed outside (as usual) and I pulled up a chair within the coop and just watched (and watched and watched - tick toc tick toc...). Eventually the new pullets ventured out of their cage and the adult chickens wandered in and out.
No introduction issues that morning with one exception. It turns out one of my adult chickens is a bully. While she didn't get as viscous this time as she did on the first introduction attempt, she definitely worked to establish and to subsequently re-iterate the pecking order in a rather aggressive way.
I still go out many times a day just to check in and make sure everything is OK. So far, the new pullets still go into their original cage to sleep. At some point, I'll be removing the cage from the coop, but for now - it's fine if they want to go where it's comfortable to them...
Also, the newbies still stay within the coop and they do stick together. That's OK. As I recall, our year-old chickens took a while to venture outside as well.
Soon (in 3 or 4 weeks), our 6 week old pullets (pictured below), will be introduced to the main flock. Fingers crossed that it goes as smoothly as this went this time (the second time around).
Comments