How do chicks and hens get along?

[Ghenri]

In the spring I will be getting another round of chicks, yet at the same time keeping my old ones. I've had my brown Laying hens for almost a year and was wondering how well they will get along with new chicks. I don't want them to hurt them, cause I know how heartless they can be sometimes. If having the new hens in a separate place until they are ready to be free range is the best way to go that is what I will do. What are your experiences with raising chicks with grown hens?

 

[LRH97]

I wouldn't put young chicks with mature hens. It's just too risky. A nice, warm brooder is the best way to go. When they are fully feathered and a little bigger you can introduce them. Now if one of your hens happens to go broody, you could let her sit for about three weeks and either hatch eggs or swap fake eggs for babies then.

 

[Emersen]

Yes, I agree! Don't put the chicks in with adult hens unless a hen has become broody. If the hen isn't broody,well lets just say that would be very bad! They could, in the worst case, be pecked to death. Good luck!

 

[Ghenri]

Ok thank you so much. I figured the grown hens would not be pleasant towards the chicks. I will keep them nice and warm by themselves when they get here and when they get their big feathers, I will let them roam! Thank you

 

[Lindyk]

Thanks for the information. My son was told he has to get rid of the chickens he has had for a year and a half. He has raised them since they were 3 days old. One of his neighbors turned him in. We have baby chicks that are 3 weeks old, and I was wondering how they would get along.
We are still finishing our coop. The 13 little chicks we have are becoming very tame as I spend time holding and petting them. I wouldn't want to do anything to upset what we have.

 

[junebuggena]

Wait until the new chicks are at least 12 weeks old. They need to be big enough to handle pecking order scuffles, and they need to be fast enough to evade the adults. Any younger and it's just too big a risk to take.

 

[LRH97]

Wait until the new chicks are at least 12 weeks old. They need to be big enough to handle pecking order scuffles, and they need to be fast enough to evade the adults. Any younger and it's just too big a risk to take.

x2. Around the 2 and a half to 3 month mark is best. I will say I have introduced around two months before, but bigger as far as the chicks go, is always better for them.

 

[azygous]

There is an alternative that allows the integration of chicks as young as three weeks old with adult chickens. I've raised eight batches of chicks this way, and never had any trouble.

The secret to being able to put such young chicks with older hens, and even roosters, is the "panic room", as I call it. It can be a temporary enclosure inside the run or it can be something permanent like a grow-out pen. But the thing that makes it work is having multiple small entrances from the panic room into the run where the big chickens are.

The holes must be big enough to accommodate the chicks until they reach around ten or twelve weeks of age but too small for the big girls. I make them about 5 inches x 7 inches. The chicks' food and water is inside their panic room so they don't need to compete with the adults, so that's a very big thing in itself.


The chicks learn very quickly where safety is, and it's a hoot watching them evade the adults in hot pursuit, the chicks zipping around the run at warp speed. Talk about chicken TV!

I made frames out of quarter inch plywood so the chicks wouldn't get hurt by any raw wire in the poultry mesh, but you can use cardboard frames, or even just tape around the edges. I made hinged covers in case I need to close off the holes and contain the chicks. It also helps to have numerous stumps, perches and old furniture for the chicks to use as escapes if there happens to be a bully in pursuit.

This most recent integration went quicker and more smoothly than any of my previous ones because I brooded the chicks right in their grow-out pen in the run right next to the rest of the flock using the heating pad/cave system. That blue "box" is the heating pad cave set-up. It stays around 85F inside and the chicks were toasty even on nights that were still diving down into the 30s.The chicks were part of the flock by proximity from their very first day, so by the time they were three weeks old, they were already mingling with the adults with no altercations whatsoever. They are now six weeks old and they are very much part of the flock, eating out of the same troughs and even free-ranging with the big chickens. I have twenty-one chickens, including the babies.

So, it is possible to integrate chicks a lot sooner than you have always thought, using the panic room system.

 

[Lindyk]

I appreciate all the information. It would be nice if I could find others near me that also have chicks. We live in the country. I've decided not to take the chance for the baby chicks. Hopefully, the 5 older ones will find good homes. We almost have their coop finished, but the weather is just too rainy.