Combining chicks from different sources

Chickiebaby49

In the Brooder
Apr 19, 2015
26
3
26
Hey everyone! I am getting 7 Australorp chicks (6 female, 1 roo) on the 30th of April (hatch date 4/29). A friend of mine has a small flock of buff orps and 12 eggs that will hatch in 2 days. I am thinking of asking if I can have a couple to add to the lorps - although the buffs will be a week older. My friend has no other chickens (just 4 hens and a roo) and has had them for a good while - they all look very healthy. Do you see any problems with combining them (other than they won't be sexed like the Lorps)?
 
Are the lorps coming from a hatchery?
Are the buff incubated or hatched by a broody?

If both came from incubators the disease risk is probably low......
......integration of days olds with week olds might be a problem, be ready to separate the brooder with wire if they don't get along.
 
Yes, the lorps are from a hatchery. The buffs are from a broody hen. I was concerned about transmission of disease mostly, but thanks for the advice regarding the wire separator.
 
Yes, the lorps are from a hatchery. The buffs are from a broody hen. I was concerned about transmission of disease mostly, but thanks for the advice regarding the wire separator.
Chicks from a broody will be bringing in whatever is in that coop/flock.
Hard to say what the risk is.
Truly effective biological quarantine is hard to do.
Someone once said to measure the risk by how heartbroken will you be if you lose some or all of your birds.


Here's some notes I've taken on integration that I found to be very helpful.......
......take what applies or might help and ignore the rest.
See if any of them, or the links provided at the bottom, might offer some tips that will assist you in your situation:

Integration of new chickens into flock.


Consider medical quarantine:
BYC Medical Quarantine Article
Poultry Biosecurity
BYC 'medical quarantine' search

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact. Integrating new birds of equal size works best.

For smaller chicks I used a large wire dog crate right in the coop for the smallers. I removed the crate door and put up a piece of wire fencing over the opening and bent up one corner just enough for the smallers to fit thru but the biggers could not. Feed and water inside the crate for the smallers. Make sure the smallers know how to get in and out of the crate opening before exposing them to the olders. this worked out great for me, by the time the crate was too small for the them to roost in there(about 3 weeks), they had pretty much integrated themselves to the olders.

If you have too many smallers to fit in a crate you can partition off part of the coop with a wire wall and make the same openings for smallers escape.


The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide out of line of sight and/or up and away from any bully birds.

Read up on integration..... BYC advanced search>titles only>integration
This is good place to start reading:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock
 
Thanks so much aart! Still not sure I'll do this at all, but nice to know beforehand! Lots of good info here. Thanks!
 
I too need to combine chicks - 20 at 4-5 weeks old with 3 7-week olds. The 20 are in an oblong horse water tank with a warm-light, in the same large pen that the 3 are able to run around in. The large pen also has a warm-light. Both places have water and feed.

If I lay the water tank on its side, would I still need to put a wire across the opening with a hole for the smaller of the 20s? Or just put many feed and waterers out in the large pen? Everyone is still small enough not to be able to pick out roos.

What other options might I have?
 
well, I went to the coop and some of the chicks in the tank decided they were big enough to be out - so they hopped onto the waterer and onto the side of the tank and down into the main area. I looked at them and the 3 larger chicks seemed okay with them sharing the space, so I caught all the rest of the chicks and took them out of the tank into the main area. I stood outside and watched for about 15-20 minutes and although they were curious, they stayed pretty much away from each other.

They have separate feeding and watering areas and I put the heat lamp up so that there were two heated areas.

I guess they'll have to do their pecking order stuff today so that by this afternoon when I go back to the coop, they'll either all be okay, or ?????

Bev
 

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