OMG this integrating is going to be a thing too, isn't it?!

[rosemarythyme]

I should worry about quarantine for disease reasons as well as separation as part of the integration process, right? So... If they came home on Saturday, can I let them out of their small coop and into their side of the yard on, say, Tuesday? tia.

Too late to worry about quarantine. The moment you put them within 100' or so of your existing birds, or visited your both group of birds with the same shoes or clothes, you already spread biological contaminants from one group to the other. So all you should be working on right now is integration.

The older ones do not stop screaming the whole time they're in their yard and I cannot stand the racket so have let them go self-isolate out of sight, out of mind, lol.

The noise I can't help you with - the existing birds are alerting because of newcomers, but they have to be around the new ones to get used to them.

 

[aliris]

lol you shamed me into chasing them back into the pen... they were hiding on a stoop.

 

[aliris]

Oh my this is all going quite well now! After chasing them back in yesterday they get considerably more polite and resigned. To the point that today, since you pointed out the separation I'd imposed wasn't really enough to make a huge difference such that integration, not isolation is the only real activity at this point, I let the biggers free range and the littles into "their" yard, which the biggers could see. The big uns were aloof, stayed as far away as possible for a while, then came closer and discovered this was pretty much of a big nothing, and there hasn't been any real screaming. 1/2 in their yard and I returned the littles to their coop (which they were using as safety, in-and-out, etc), and the biggers back into their yard and still.... quiet. Ty BYC! Obvsiouly we're not done, just the encouragement to keep going is helpful. There's clear progress.

 

[aliris]

Harmony achieved! Trigo: "I'm in charge here..." Centeno: "Got it, can I please go now there are bees to eat?"

Q: Is there serious backsliding likely/possible, so to speak, to worry about? That they've achieved mostly-harmony out and about free ranging, is that just in the larger context, might they still scrapple in, say, the tighter, less enriched environment of the coop?

 

[rosemarythyme]

Q: Is there serious backsliding likely/possible, so to speak, to worry about? That they've achieved mostly-harmony out and about free ranging, is that just in the larger context, might they still scrapple in, say, the tighter, less enriched environment of the coop?

Not likely, though fights/arguments can break out over anything even with well integrated birds.