Hoping For COOPeration

There were new chickens and we had to make sure that they didn't kill each other. This may sound simple but because chickens often establish complex pecking orders, this is not as simple as it sounds.

Some fighting is required as according to The Happy Chicken Coop blog:
 

"When your existing flock ‘greet’ the new chickens you will find there will be some scraps and jostling as they establish the new pecking order. This is perfectly normal and is a necessary step when successfully introducing new chickens. You should only stop this jostling if one of the chickens looks injured or starts to bleed- you don’t want your chickens to experience any permanent injuries." Though, " If you find that the jostling is getting more and more intense and it lasts more than several minutes, separate the new chickens and re-introduce them again tomorrow. Continue to do this once a day until within a few minutes of introducing them, they have settled down." 

Using this information, we knew it was important to observe the chickens as they got to know each other. As, if they fought too much we were prepared to create  a separate space for the new chickens to inhabit while we broke up the integration into phases instead of all at once.

Two chickens fighting over roosting box rights.