An interesting outcome on introducing new birds

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Hi,
I have 4 pekins. Yesterday, I got two more, a sweet little blue, which I am not sure is pure pekin, and a gorgeous lemon cuckoo frizzle. When the rain stops , I'll take some photos and post them and perhaps someone can tell me a bit more about the blue?

Anyway, there are reams written on how to introduce new birds..at night etc. Quite a few more experienced people than me have recently told me to just chuck 'em all in together as leaving it until nightime only delays the invevitable fighting. This worked a treat with my last introduction with no fighting at all that I could see, so I thought I give it another go yesterday, when an unexpected thing happened.

I put the 2 new girls in and the others seemed to go mad - not with the new girls, but with each other. The newbies stood on the sidelines whilst the others all took turns at taking chunks out of each other! I spent a few hours with them to make sure that no real damage was done. A couple of times they had a minor or go at the blue, but so far, they don't seem to have noticed the frizzle at all, and it was her I worried about, thinking that they would pull her feathers.Today there's been nothing - all's quiet.

I just didn't expect the original 4 to start attacking each other. Weird
 
Its usually best to isolate new birds before you introduce them to your existing flock in case they bring any nasties in. 2 weeks is usually best as this gives time for things to show up, as moving etc can cause stress which in turn can make them poorly.
 
I was also told by an experienced keeper to do the same as you B. She said exactly the same but I still kept mine seperated. She has a small field for hers which I think makes the difference, they can get away if necessary.
 
I built a separate compound for my orps when I got them so the welsummers could see them and get used to them before introducing them properly. I planned to open the gate and let them meet each other slowly after a fortnight but the orps broke out after a week and they all got on with the minimum of fuss. There was the odd bit of squabbling with each other but most of the battles were between the orps themselves!

They're all living together now though.
:)
Osric
 
Hi Liz,

How brave are you taking on a couple more and upsetting the status quo. I am sure things will settle, as we have found with our 5 girls. BUT it does seem to take time. As for quarantining or separating, I would do that next time. The reason ours have all had colds and subsequently on antibiotics, is we think, down to stress, after introducing two new girls......d'uccle introduced 5wks ago and the poot 4wks ago. All 5 been ill for the past 2 weeks.

The Pekins sleep in one house and the newbies are still not totally accepted after 4 weeks and sleep in another house. Plus they still have separate feeders and drinkers but happily mill around the garden. We would love for them to all be in the same house. With all this rain, the new girls, have sheltered in the big girls house for a short time......but were marched out after an hour or so. So some progress made.

Would love to see pics of your frizzle "Cookie"- I am partial to them- just worry about the difficulty of finding crawlies with all those fab feathers. As for your "Sky" (blue) she sounds very interesting. Where did you get them from- Susie?

Hurry up with the pics, and let us know how they are getting on- how exciting- Pekins galore!
 
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