When to add new chickie-babies to the flock...

Since you have more babies than older ones you will probably have less issues because the new flock is larger than the older flock. You want to have them separate at first, but able to see and talk to each other. Somehow separate with chicken wire is best, so they can go up and check each other out.

I usually get my three week old peeps outside in an enclosure, close to the older birds, but safe in their own pen on nice warm days. They go back to the nursery at night and back out during the day as long as the weather is good. Once they are 5 to 6 weeks then they can be in the chicken fence, but still separate with a fence and at 8 weeks I have them out on their own during the day and into the big girls coop at night. That has worked the best for me.

The first time I mixed a flock I let the new birds get full grown and the older birds wouldn't have anything to do with them, and chased them out every night. I had to wait until after dark and put the new birds into the coop, but at first light the old girls started tearing into the new ones. And their numbers were almost even, 7 old to 6 new. When I started mixing them in A-more slowly and B-at a younger age I had more success and less bloody battles.

However, if you have any new roosters in your new batch you will have to watch the old roosters. As soon as the new ones start to crow they may start into each other, and once the new roosters are full grown they may take on the old roosters. March 1 was my battle day. I have 6 roosters. 2 were raised together and they are 1,2 in the pecking order. The other 4 are all brothers from the same hatch and are just 8 months younger. One of the younger doesn't like his placement in the order and took on #1, then all the others after. I should have sold tickets, they did battle for 48 hours and I had to send my dog out to break up one fight while I took a broom to break up another. After 2 days they shifted the order a bit, but the 1,2 stayed the same. I'll never do this many roosters at one time again. Three max.

I brood my chicks till they are about 6 weeks if it is warmer weather, 8 weeks in cooler weather. I simply raise them to this age, and unceremoniously plop them in with the older chickens....they find their way and learn their place (pecking order happens if you're careful, or not) and integrate within a few weeks. Always good to be sure you don't add one small pullet to a large flock by itself, it has no one to co-habitate with on the roosting bar or floor while it is assimilating, it will be cold. I do several at a time so they have their own little flock to be in while the process is happening.

Otherwise we have always had good luck, and no one has ever hurt one another. I added my Black Jersey Giant flock of 6 to our established 20 at the time, and other than to try and chase them off once in a while, our adult flock did not bother them because we have plenty of space for them. When our chickens were in small quarters, we had some feather plucking issues and noticed more aggression at the feeders.

Anytime you notice feathers being plucked, sores and even mild illnesses, you have to assume it is because of stress from lack of space. Always segregate a chicken that has sores or illness the others will constantly peck at it and make things worse, plus you want others to remain healthy is one is sick.

I have noticed this about chickens. We mainly have kept Rhode Island Red s for egg laying (solid, sturdy and hearty prolific egg layers). If we introduce another hen into the flock that looks vastly different from them, they do not allow them into the flock. We have some small bantys our son and his girlfriend raised just because and they, of course, come out to the field to be with the other chickens....we have one white Japanese bantam, the kind with the black tail, and they have never let her into the flock, she has to run in the middle of them, grab something and run out with it. Same with the other lttle ones.

This seems to go with all the lighter colored hens that are even regular sized. My guess on this is a "natural selection" thing. They only want other birds they see as same as them or close to the same, in the flock to keep those genetics going. Thus, when you introduce a chicken vastly differing in size or color, they will not let it in and it has to live on the outskirts of that flock to some degree.

Then there are the times you have the same breed being introduced and they are beyond the normal awful for a short time to the new chickens. This could be that there is either not enough physical space, or, not enough feeder space. If you have one feeder and twenty chickens, they will see it s this is all they have and they need to protect it from others, not knowing or understanding you will refill it as much as needed. They will see it as a limited resource for their flock that needs to be protected. So more space or add more feeders and waterers to match their needs, see how this works.