What age can the young girls go join flock outside?

My new batch of chicks are growing quickly - we use the electric contact brooder rather than a red light and I feel like the chicks grow up and feather quicker.
There are 11 young ones in this new batch and our main flock consists of 3 older hens out in the coop. They have meet through bars on outdoor excursions and seemed fine, I'm not expecting a huge integration problem.

My question is, how soon can they go out, if I bring the electric brooder out to the coop with them? I live in Massachusetts and nights are still pretty warm here. The oldest chicks are 5 weeks, the youngest is about 3 weeks old.
Here's a pic of them to see how feathered out they look:



(The youngest one is the blonde big cheeked girl in the middle of the second pic, and to the far left in the first).

Thoughts, opinions, or suggestions? Thank you so much!

I wouldn't wait too long, they will pile on the floor for a bit probably to stay warm, and with the weather warmer yet I would probably just move them, though I pen mine separate from the adults for a bit, you have a good ratio, I certainly would try it.

Are they still using the heat in the brooder?
How warm is it in your brooder in the house compared to the coop?

They should be totally off heat by 5 weeks I would think.
When I take my chicks off heat(~ 3-4 weeks) I give them a huddle box right in the brooder,
cardboard box just a bit bigger than they need to fit without stacking with a big hole in one side for an entrance.
I move that out to the coop with them and they are fine.

You will have to keep them separated by mesh from the flock for awhile at least.
The fact that you have triple the number of newbies vs residents might help, but still be careful that no one gets beat up too badly.



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.

In adjacent runs, spread scratch grains along the dividing mesh, best of mesh is just big enough for birds to stick their head thru, so they get used to eating together.

Another option, if possible, is to put all birds in a new coop and run, this takes the territoriality issues away.

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