I brought tomorrow’s murder victims into the Fortress of Attitude, where the two ladies ignored the hen and set upon the cock so viciously I finally took mercy and brought him into the shed.
Landlady brought me five new RIR chicks. While I was moving the second from the Jeep, Middle Hen had already so terrorized the first one that it found a previously-ignored hole in the fence and escaped. Took a while to catch her.
They decided that under the coop was a good place to be…
And they all seemed happy to be back together. Under the coop. When they ventured out from under, the hens chased them right back. I left the big coop door open so they could go inside, and hopefully they will. I’ll go out and tuck them in once it’s good and dark.
It’s been a stressful day for chickens around here.
UPDATE: Went out to close up the coop around 7:30. Found one chick sound asleep all alone at the Fortress’s gate. Picked her up (which she did NOT appreciate) and carried her to the coop, where I found all six of the others quite companionably snoozing. So at least the ladies let the noobies inside.
How to integrate new chickens to an existing flock: Wait for night time when the birds are roosting. Put the new birds onto the roost w/o disturbing resident birds. When they all wake in the AM, things will go better for all.