pullet roosting question for tonight

[spiritpots]

Hello! I have a quick question... I've been integrating 3 new pullets (now 16-17 weeks old) to my existing flock of 3 chickens. I've been following the recommended steps and today has been the first day I put them all together in the same enclosed run after free ranging. Things are going very well. My question is what should I do this evening when the big girls go to roost? The young ones have been spending the nights in a dog crate (with a low roost bar) inside of the run so I'm wondering if I should continue to put them in the crate for the next few days or place them in the coop with the others right away tonight. The coop has three different height roosting bars and the existing chickens always go to the top one. If I do put the pullets in the coop with the others tonight I would put them on the lowest bar. I would also get up at the crack of dawn to open the coop so the young ones can get back into the run. Any suggestions or recommendation about what I should do? Any thoughts are greatly appreciated! Thank you!

 

[50-45-1]

I would remove the crate and help them learn to roost in the right spot.
They have to learn eventually and it may be safer for them in the coop.

 

[aart]

Curious what you did last night.
How long have birds been 'together'?
Also, pics of coop, inside and out, may help here.

 

[spiritpots]

So far so good! I put the pullets in the coop last night once the big girls were up on the top roost. I placed each of the young ones on the bottom roost but only one stayed there. The other two wanted to sleep in one of the nesting boxes so I put the roosting bar I had used in the dog crate on a couple of cinder blocks and they slept on that. When I went out early this morning everyone was where I had left them and were doing fine. Once they were all out of the coop I removed the temporary roost.

I let everyone out to free range for a couple hours this morning and then put them back in the run together. The pullets are staying clear of the big girls and the big girls are generally leaving the young ones alone with only an occasional peck from one of them. The pullets have been in the coop a bit this afternoon. I've been checking on them regularly to be sure they aren't trapped in there.

Here are a couple photos of the run. The pullets are at the center left and the older chickens are on the right side. I have food and water in a couple locations and have also leaned some boards against the sides of the run for hiding places for the new girls so it's a bit crowded looking now. I hung up one of the feeders today and rearranged a bit so there's more room for them to move around now. There is also a photo of the inside of the coop with the young ones by the pop door. The area where I put the temporary roost is off to the right (not in the photo). Tonight I will try putting the young ones on the lower roost again and hopefully they'll stay there I won't need to set up the temporary roost. Oh, and I made my coop out of old pallets, which explains why the inside looks like it does!

 

[spiritpots]

Curious what you did last night.
How long have birds been 'together'?
Also, pics of coop, inside and out, may help here.

I posted an update but forgot to mention that I've been slowly introducing the two groups for at least 5 weeks. They were in a temporary run next to the main run during the day for about 4 weeks and then in a separated 'see but no touch' area in the main run for about 10 days. I also had the two groups free range together for a week before I fully integrated them yesterday.