Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

Hi! New to this group. We got our chickens almost a year ago. Had 7 and are down to 4. Getting 10 new from the hatchery on Tuesday.
I'd love thoughts and advice on adding the 10 to our coop. When we added 2 last summer to our 5 we just added them and had no issues.

Hello and welcome. Lots of folks to help you out here!

well gidday and welcome eh!

Hi, welcome to

to PTO!
I'm a bit heartless when it comes to adding new birds. I put new ones in at night, and let them sort themselves out the next day. If I have a hen I suspect will be overly aggressive, I move her/them to a shed they're not used to. Often, taking a bully out of her comfort zone will give her pause and establish a new pecking order without bloodshed. After 3 or 4 days they can be moved back to home turf. If I find I have a chronic bully, I eat them. Others here do things differently!
The main thing to remember though, no matter how you go about it, is to quarantine new birds for a time (most do it for a month), because anytime you stress chickens, like moving to a new coop or adding new birds, any hidden diseases they might be carrying can start to 'shed'. If new birds are hiding something, your existing flock can get sick, and if the existing flock has a hidden infection, you can end up killing the new birds.

had to look up where camlachie is but a most hearty welcome from the other side of the self proclaimed centre of the universe...lol... to .... I agree with www...quarantine for a while...and put them together at night..and watch the next day...you may be lucky in the numbers game adding more than are in original group...lots of good advice here by some incredibly generous friendly folks...enjoy... :running-chicken:

hiya! and welcome!!!!

yeah, i'm ruthless too. after mandatory quarantine i just pop them all together and let them sort themselves out. if anyone gets particularly nasty and won't quit they get removed and thrown back on the roost (gently) in the dark. seems the dark somehow "resets" them and they just wake up the next morning and are all, oh, you were here all night, you must be okay.....(wee brains sometimes).

now, adding roosters together is a little tougher, they just won't quit sometimes, so they end up in crates beside each other (and out of reach) and slowly moved closer and closer until one day i "forget" to close the doors....they'll work it out....most of the time.

hope you enjoy the forum!

Hello, and welcome!
When we added new pullets, straight from the hatchery, we put them straight into their coop (with water & a bit of food) and let them come out when they were ready to venture where there were older birds. It worked out fine.

Ok thanks everyone. We got 10 from the hatchery. I put the old birds outside to roam and will add them back into the coop tonight and hope for the best. No quarantine. Fingers cross it works out ok.

Good luck with getting them established together!
And welcome to !