Small scale chicken farmers!
Need to introduce one or more new birds to the coop but worried about upsetting the pecking order? Bring the new birds along just a couple of hours before dusk. Shut them up in the coop straight away - they will be stressed from being moved and will happily go straight to sleep. Keep your other birds outside longer than normal then open up the coop when they're really ready to roost. They will notice the new hens but will be too tired to protest and will just go and perch. In the morning, being hens and therefore dim, they will wake up and think this is how it has always been, and the new birds will be integrated with the minimum of fuss.
(Smale is stuffed, Tue 12 Apr 2011, 20:52, Reply)