what age do you put the young hens in with the older ones

[LaLa Chickie]

I just integrated my six young ones in to the pen and had a wire fence between them. Somehow 1 got out of their enclosure and was killed....I do not know how it happened but I am dismayed. I have 18 2 year olds and 6 4 month olds....they are about the same size as the older ones. I have a 25x50 foot pen.....

So sorry for your loss. Those little guys/gals can seem to find a way out of some of our best intentions and gating. I had a wooden accordion like baby gate in mine and had to fasten it really well upper and lower hooks to the walls and propped a heavy feeder against it and was finally able to confine the young ones. It's taken me 9 months before I could finally take the gate down between them and the 21/2yr olds. My youngest are 10 months and just now can be with the 2 1/2yr barred rocks. They could get away from them when they were all outside cause they had the room to run, but not in the coop. Good luck with the others.

 

[gander111]

Although I do have a large coup/run for my flock, my husband bought for me the little coup/run combo from Costco and it is perfect as a brooder and for mama to raise babies! After yo put it together you can place it over a pre-framed perimeter made from concrete or brick to keep chickies safe. I'm on my second set of chicks now.
I highly recommend it!
Sorry for your loss, we do love our chickie babies, don't we?

 

[gilcamp4]

that hen is big, i have four sets old hens, then one of them sat on eggs had nine, have 15 sex links i got from murreys then a hen sat on eggs again we got 5 out of them, we have a camper we use as coop fixed inside with roost and nests then in one part we fenced off for peeps and have a cage uptop for new peeps, the nine we put out 2 weeks ago as long as they don't fit out the fence we move them to the big part, when not more peeps we take wall down abd they run the whole thing it is 27ft long we have a hole with ramp for peeps and just leave door open for bigger ones, the peeps are about 20 week for me also they can start eating laying mash, as long as they are on med feed they stay in the pen.

 

[cortner1195]

My grow out shelter/ run,. is set up adjacent to the main coop/run. They are set a little like the yin/yang symbol.
Tonight during free range time everyone was getting along perfectly. One of my one year olds wandered into the grow out run. We had lots going on with the calves coming through the fence, the pigs got out, it was wild! When dusk fell and everyone headed to bed we were up at the house. I went down to close the coop and could here chicken talk all the way up at the house. When I got to the grow out run the big hen was on a roost by herself. She was not happy in anyway. I went in and picked her up. She is not fond of contact. She loved me at that moment. I carried her to the main coop and got her settled. All was quiet.

I will take this as a good sign that the two groups are getting more comfortable with each other.

 

[DeesHens]

Quote: Seems like a good sign to me as well. But I am finding this mingling transition is very fluid.

I had a somewhat similar experience but in reverse last night. My youngsters were on the old hen roost spot and the old hen was squawking about it when I went over to close the door for the night. As soon as they saw me the youngsters came out & went to their proper place and my old hen was satisfied to go to her own spot previously invaded by the younsters. With a net dividing the coop and separate doors and ladders this was more complicated then it sounds.

Two problems I have not figured out solutions for so maybe someone can give me some helpful suggestions?

1. I want to fatten up the youngsters but my old hen is keeping them at bay from the feeding stations. Have two approximately 8 feet apart. The old hen has the youngsters spooked and seems to insist both are hers for the most part. So I can't tell how much food the youngsters actually are consuming when I am not around & I know they didn't eat when I was out there. I hate to separate them as I thought we were making progress. This morning was definitely bad when Peppa, the lead youngster, got pecked by Betsy the old hen thus reinforcing you best stay away from the food.

2. I have the oyster shell available for the old hen as she is still laying eggs every couple of days or so. But the youngsters eat it when it is accessible and I don't want them to damage their kidneys eating it. I finally put it in the old hens section of the coop but I don't think she goes in there during the day to eat it. She has always preferred the nest box on the side of the coop the youngsters roost now. So in the day she uses their side. It is unfortunate she has always preferred the roost on the opposite side. Of course!

Such is life. Things never seem to go perfect.

~Dee~

 

[gilcamp4]

Seems like a good sign to me as well. But I am finding this mingling transition is very fluid.

I had a somewhat similar experience but in reverse last night. My youngsters were on the old hen roost spot and the old hen was squawking about it when I went over to close the door for the night. As soon as they saw me the youngsters came out & went to their proper place and my old hen was satisfied to go to her own spot previously invaded by the younsters. With a net dividing the coop and separate doors and ladders this was more complicated then it sounds.

Two problems I have not figured out solutions for so maybe someone can give me some helpful suggestions?

1. I want to fatten up the youngsters but my old hen is keeping them at bay from the feeding stations. Have two approximately 8 feet apart. The old hen has the youngsters spooked and seems to insist both are hers for the most part. So I can't tell how much food the youngsters actually are consuming when I am not around & I know they didn't eat when I was out there. I hate to separate them as I thought we were making progress. This morning was definitely bad when Peppa, the lead youngster, got pecked by Betsy the old hen thus reinforcing you best stay away from the food.

2. I have the oyster shell available for the old hen as she is still laying eggs every couple of days or so. But the youngsters eat it when it is accessible and I don't want them to damage their kidneys eating it. I finally put it in the old hens section of the coop but I don't think she goes in there during the day to eat it. She has always preferred the nest box on the side of the coop the youngsters roost now. So in the day she uses their side. It is unfortunate she has always preferred the roost on the opposite side. Of course!

Such is life. Things never seem to go perfect.

~Dee~

we put the big ones outside in the morning keeping the smaller ones in so they can eat, we also found the older hens stop them from eating during the day so this way we know they get food, we leave younger ones in coop for about hour then let then out, i also throw a horse feed i found they like, and in the winter i get oats like the kind you feed your kids and we add it to thier feed also feed them corn the oats we put right in the feed tray mixed with thier reg feed. we use pellits as we found there is not as much waste.

 

[Aaron Dunn]

The older pullets spent today in the new pen and enjoyed themselves---running and flying around. I put a 6 ft, fence around the pen and they do not seemed inclined to try to go over it. The younger chickens had the coop and run all to themselves and spent the day with fresh alfalfa, garden lettice and some extra room. I removed the safe box and everything seems to be okay as they are all on the roost together. The younger birds are still smaller than the older ones and it looks as if the Andalusians are not going to be as large as some of the others.
Have a blessed day,
<><
me

 

[NanaHess]

We have 10, 21 week old Big Girls and 10, 10 week old babies (will be 5-6 by the time we filter out the roos) with a 10x20 fenced & roofed run & attached 8x4 coop. We divided off a small section at the far end with a small prefab coop that we moved the 10 "babies" into @ 6 weeks old.
After 3 weeks of through-the-fence interaction we cut a small hole in a corner, intending to make it baby size only, but my skills are poor and wound up with a few big girls coming and going to mingle and only 1 little brave chick venturing into the Big Girl run occasionally.
We let them all free range for a few hours almost every day and they keep mostly separated as we expected with some mild chasing.
4 days ago we started putting the babies into the Big Girl coop at night and they would go back to their side in the morning with no problems, sort of like a game of frogger as they ran for their fence hole! After 2 days we removed their own little prefab temp coop, but built a few hiding shelters for them. We still had to catch them and carry them over that night as there was mass confusion.
Last night was a victory, went out to move them over and every single one of them had gone into the Big Girl side and up into the coop all by themselves. A couple of them were even snuggled in roosting on the Big Girl prime roost, but a couple were just sort of hunkered down afraid to run under them to the lesser roosting real estate in the back, so we helped them over.
We may take down the divider this weekend, but am considering leaving it up another week. It has gone so smoothly I see no reason to rush it, plus there are a few little petite gals I have a sweet spot for and am worried, even though they seem to be the ones the Big Girls allow to mingle longer.

 

[DeesHens]

Quote: Thank you!

Later yesterday I was so worried that I did put my youngsters in the closed run with food for an hour before letting them out into the paddock with the older hen. Somehow this morning that has changed the dynamic ... possibly temporary??? because they actually ate together this AM. Oh, those crazy chickens!

I may need to do this regularly until they fatten up though. I had read that some give their chickens calf manna. I give mine organic feeds so don't know if I can find such things. I do supplement at times with raw organic sunflower seeds & oats from my own kitchen cupboard.

~Dee~

 

[DeesHens]

The older pullets spent today in the new pen and enjoyed themselves---running and flying around. I put a 6 ft, fence around the pen and they do not seemed inclined to try to go over it. The younger chickens had the coop and run all to themselves and spent the day with fresh alfalfa, garden lettice and some extra room. I removed the safe box and everything seems to be okay as they are all on the roost together. The younger birds are still smaller than the older ones and it looks as if the Andalusians are not going to be as large as some of the others.
Have a blessed day,
<><
me

That sounds great!

~Dee~