Baby chicks and hens?

[Rodeislandred23]

Hey guys, so I just went to tractor supply today and saw that they had some baby chicks I was thinking about getting some more girls... but I didn't know how old they have to be to put them in the coop with the hens. So here's my question how old do chicks have to be to be in the coop with hens? I can't wait until they are the same size because I have one coop and I can't free range because we have bad pretators around here. can I put them out a 1 month old? Thank you all for the help!

 

[Pyxis]

I would probably wait to start introductions until the chicks are about eight weeks old. That way they'll be big enough to at least have a chance at standing up for themselves against the adults. And then I'd use the see but don't touch method to make things go smoothly.

 

[aart]

First..... make sure you have enough space in coop and run for as many adult birds as you want to have. Crowding can make for all sorts of problems, especially during integration.

I integrated last years chicks at about 4 weeks old.
They went into the coop at 1 week with their heater, separated by a wooden and mesh temporary wall from the main flock.
They had their own feed, water, roost, and run in the 'coop partition' as I call it.
At 4 weeks I opened the three tiny doors in the wood part of the wall and 'taught' them how to go in and out.
At 6 weeks I took down the wall completely.
There were a few pecks of course, some of the bigs pestered the littles more than others, but overall it was much less dramatic than usual.
I think the chicks were less of a 'threat' than when I used to wait until the chicks were larger...and a smaller, faster target to hit, haha!