Adding New Chickens
It doesn’t matter if you are adding new chickens of any age to your flock or adding new baby chicks. It is extremely important to introduce new chickens slowly to and establishes flock to help keep everyone safe and healthy. This is called “flock integration”. Introducing new chickens or baby chicks can be dangerous as it can cause fights and death. From personal experience, I don’t recommend introducing a new rooster to flock that already has a dominate aggressive rooster. This can end tragically even after months of being in the same coop and same area. If you have more than one rooster, you will want to free range and have a very large area and coop, so each rooster can have a space for his ladies and himself. And aggressive roosters need to go.
Chickens are social animals with a hierarchy and pecking order for everything from eating to roosting spot. Adding new chickens can upset the balance and cause stress. It is wise to introduce new chickens slowly, so they have time to get comfortable with each other. Just adding them in at night is bad advice and not enough.
Sometimes you may want to quarantine new birds from other farms, for about 2 weeks, before starting the introduction process. This way you can prevent diseases from spreading to your flock. Make sure baby chicks have enough space, food and heat. And protect them from the adult chickens too. Following these guidelines will help your flock to stay healthy and safe.
Easiest Way to Add New Baby Chicks To Your Flock
The absolute easiest way to add to your established flock is to let a broody hen hatch out some eggs. She will keep them warm, teach them how to find bugs and introduce them into the flock.
Now as long as you have a rooster who is actively doing his “job” to fertilize the eggs, they can hatch their own. Otherwise if you want a specific breed, find a chicken group on Facebook and ask if anyone has hatching eggs for the breed you want. Many will sell you fertilized eggs to hatch yourself. However you will need to make sure you have a broody hen that’s ready. You cannot force a hen to go broody.
By hatching this way you have WAY less work to do. However there is a gamble that some eggs may not hatch. Even in the incubator there is still a chance this may happen too.
Setting Up My Brooder & System For Adding New Chickens
This is the easiest brooder and flock integration method. That’s right, I use a Wire Dog Crate. This is a perfect way that everyone can see and hear each other to get acquainted without any harm. You can leave the bottom tray in or pull it out and set it right on the coop floor.
First make sure your coop is secure of any predators, and block any drafts with boards on the sides. Place the crate on the floor and make sure it’s level.
Second, add food and water containers and some bedding on the floor.
Third for baby chicks add a heat lamp. For full feather birds this isn’t necessary.
Fourth add a stick thick enough to hold the birds, just above ground level. Since their instinct is to perch. Fasten the stick to the crate walls.
Fifth, for baby chicks keep the door fully closed until they are fully feathered. For Full feathered new chickens leave the door close about 3-5 days.
Sixth, start to open the crate door, just wide enough for them to sneak in and out, but the rest of the flock can’t. So once baby chicks are fully feathered, at least 6 weeks old, just crack the door. Secure it so it stays open so they can escape to the safety of the crate and the big chickens can’t open it wider. For birds almost the same size as your flock, make curtains to cover the cracked open crate door. Once the birds come out they will remember where to go hide, but others will be less likely to follow.
Make sure to supervise interaction once you open the door. They’ll get braver and venture out farther. They’ll establish pecking orders for eating and roosting but it shouldn’t be brutal.
Adding New Chickens - Trouble Getting In The Coop At Night
This is such an easy method for training new birds to go in the coop at night. Leave a light on in the coop towards evening, roughly 3 hours prior to dark. They will go towards the light as it starts to get darks. Many chickens will roost early, some up to 2 hours prior to dark.
If you do not have power in your coop, you can do this with a battery powered lantern or a very high powered flashlight. They just need something so they can tell it is lighter in there than outside. They cannot see in the dark so that is why this works so well.
You may only need to repeat this 2-3 nights for them to catch on. However for this too work, they need to feel safe in the coop. If a predator has broken in, this will not work. They need to feel it is a safe place or they will not roost there.
Additional Information - Adding New Chickens
This is the size Dog Crate I use. However if you have more than 4-5 adult birds or 10-15 baby chicks you may want a larger size. I never do that many, but I think you could for a short period of time. Just make sure you keep up with food and water appropriately depending on the quantity of birds.
For more information on Hobby Farming check this out.
*Some highlighted words contain links in which commissions are earned. If you choose to use our links, thank you! WE appreciate your support.
