Babies moving in with the old ladies

[spies04]

Hi! We have had our baby chicks for about 10 weeks and they have recently moved into our chicken house with the old ladies and roo. However, they are in a pen sectioned off so while they can see each other through the wire, they cannot get to each other. At what point can they fully move into the chicken house and no longer need the pen. I am concerned about their size with potential bullying along with the need for chick growth feed instead of chicken feed.

Wondering your thoughts. thanks!!

 

[cafarmgirl]

Wait until they are nearly the same size. The longer you keep them fenced off so the older birds can get used to them the easier your integration will go and with less potential harm to the youngsters. I don't integrate until babies are 15 weeks old and this works really well for me. I don't want babies getting scalped, I don't want to have to be pulling them out to treat wounds and keeping them separate while they heal etc. etc. etc. Or, worst case scenario, having youngsters killed by older birds. It happens. A little extra time and effort is well worth the wait.

Edited to add: Regarding the feed issue, you can feed everybody, older and younger birds a flock raiser or all flock type feed and offer oyster shell on the side for the older birds.

 

[farmer boy]

how many chicks do you have ?

 

[sumi]

Ideally new chicks should be integrated with an existing flock once they are more or less the same size as the older chickens. Which in your case should be in about another 8-10 weeks. After the integration what you can do feed wise, while you wait for the youngsters to start laying, is feed the entire flock an all flock feed and offer extra calcium in the form of oystershell or crushed eggshell for the layers.

 

[spies04]

Hi! Thank you for the great information!! We have ten babies, 14 old ladies (including one guinea hen who thinks she is a chicken) and two roosters. Our chickens are layers and our pets - each one has a name. We enjoy them so much that even when they stop laying, they still can live out their days in the house. We have a bantam is is 7 1/2 years old.

Appreciate all of the help!!

 

[farmer boy]

okay since you have 14 older hens and 2 roosters i would let the babies grow a little more with their group size they can handle their self once their a little older