Introduce now or wait longer?

jenn- said:

I know you guys are probably sick and tired of this question as I see several topics already started, but I think this is a different enough of a situation to start a different thread.

My FIL picked up 12 chicks about a month ago. At the time there was about a 2wk difference in age and I'm not really sure he realized that. He had them all in one brooder and within a couple of weeks, a couple of the bigger ones were feather pecking everyone else. I told him he needed more space so he got another brooding space and separated them by age.

Well he can only keep 6 in town (the rest are going out to his farm) and originally it was going to be a mixed up flock but the smaller birds are all barred rocks with a random australorp thrown in there. The bigger birds are red sex link and production reds.

The bigger birds are now hanging out in a small coop/run outside but the littler ones still need more temperature protection so they are inside and outside depending on the weather.

My question comes, if he wants to mix these two groups up keeping some of the black ones and mixing some of the red ones, will it be easier if he goes on and does it now, or will a couple of weeks not make much of a difference? Does it matter that the bigger birds would have to go back to brooder confinement after being "free" if he does it now?

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aart said:

You're probably looking at an integration issue, even tho they are only 2 weeks apart in age you've already seen that the bigs are picking on the littles. You might be ale to put some of the littles in with some of the bigs without carnage, but I doubt it. I'd wait until the brooder chicks are old enough to live outside, get rid of the birds he is not going to keep, then split the coop with wire(or use a wire dog crate or cage) and put the smaller chicks in the coop to begin the integration. I had the exact same situation last spring, here's what I did and some other notes on integration, and I'll add some pics of my set up down below: Here's some notes I've taken on integration that I found to be very helpful. 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 I actually removed the door to the crate, moved piece of fencing down lower and bent up a corner of it for the littles to get thru.

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jenn- said:

No, it's moot at this point....that's just my notes that I cut and paste..... use what fits, ignore the rest.

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aart said:

No, it's moot at this point....that's just my notes that I cut and paste..... use what fits, ignore the rest.

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jenn- said:

Quote: You're welcome, it doesn't always fit but I'm a terrible typist, and sometimes lazy, so use cut and paste from my notes.

Ditto this:"Don’t ever worry about getting blasted for asking a question."
The search function is not the greatest here.....advanced search with titles only works a bit better than the big search field at the top.

You actually gave very thorough information, many folks don't, which made it easier (and me more inclination) to answer.

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