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Integrating two groups

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jesirose

jesirose

Songster
7 Years
Mar 14, 2012
371
26
128
McKinney, TX
I have a trio of Cream Legbars that is about 6-8 weeks old, and two more trios I just got as babies. Right now the older ones are with another 5 chickens the same age. When the babies are old enough I want to move the 4 younger hens and the older 2 hens and 1 roo into one pen. What age would be ideal to do this?

My plan was to put them in two neighboring pens at first so they can just get used to each other, then combine them.

My ideal would be to have two of the roosters in the pen with the 6 hens, would it be better to keep the younger 6 together and then just add the two older hens? Then remove one of the roosters if they fight.

I'm hoping since they are only about 6-8 weeks apart in age they won't be too hard to integrate.
 
I think I follow what you thought you meant to try to say. I had to read it a few times but now it makes sense. That's probably me more than you.

One way chickens have learned to live together in flocks is that when there is a conflict, the weaker runs away from the stronger or just avoids them to start with. I don’t know how big your pens are but size of the pens will have a lot to do with your success.

When two or more roosters are raised together, they often get along pretty well. When they hit puberty and beyond, they will decide which one is dominant. This may go so peacefully that you don’t even see a skirmish. It may be a fight to the death. Again pen size has something to do with this. If the loser of the skirmish does not have enough room to run away or avoid the winner, it is more likely to be a fight to the death.

That 6 to 8 week age difference is enough to make a difference. More mature chickens will dominate immature chickens. Sometimes they can be real brutes and bullies about it. But flocks have consisted of chicks and chickens of all ages for thousands of years. What I have in my flock right now would really freak out a lot of people, yet I consider it normal and natural. I have a mature dominant rooster, some mature hens, some pullets just coming into lay, some 7 week olds that a broody weaned a couple of weeks ago, and a broody with two week old chicks. Those are all roaming together without a real problem. When a 7 week old invades the personal space of a more mature hen or pullet, it might get pecked and run away, but usually the older ones just ignore it. But I have a lot of space. They can run away and avoid to their hearts content. If I were trying to shoehorn them into the tiniest space possible, I’m sure I’d have serious problems. I don’t know how much space you have in your pens. That is a huge concern.

Your general plan is a good one. Keep the younger six together and house the older next to them. Put the older in with the younger, either in the younger one’s territory or at a neutral site to avoid territorialism. The older ones being territorial is what I’d be concerned about. The less space you have the older the young ones need to be before you try this, maybe even waiting until the younger ones are laying.

People do this type of stuff all the time. Most of the time they are successful. But occasionally it ends in disaster. Good luck!
 
LOL thanks :)

To clarify in case it's still confusing:
I have a flock of 6-8 week olds, which includes 3 cream legbars, a roo and two hens. I also have a brooder with 18 chicks, 3 days old, which includes 2 CL roos and 4 CL hens. I want to breed the legbars when they are old enough and put them in their own pen eventually, separate from their existing groups. The other chicks in the two flocks will not be integrated at all so I'm just concerned about the legbars. :)

Hope that makes more sense :)


I read the article and it said to wait to 16 weeks. So when the youngest ones are 16 weeks would be a good time to start? Or I can put them next to each other as soon as they can go outside and then start moving them into one single pen at 16 weeks.
 
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That article was written by someone I have a lot of respect for but it’s about the way she does it with her set-up and conditions. I do it differently because my set-up and conditions are different. You can certainly try it at 16 weeks. I do it at 8 weeks and have never lost one. Some people have trouble if they wait longer than 16 weeks. There is no magic number for this that works for all of us. We are all unique with unique situations.
 
Ridgerunner said:
That article was written by someone I have a lot of respect for but it’s about the way she does it with her set-up and conditions. I do it differently because my set-up and conditions are different. You can certainly try it at 16 weeks. I do it at 8 weeks and have never lost one. Some people have trouble if they wait longer than 16 weeks. There is no magic number for this that works for all of us. We are all unique with unique situations.
Click to expand...
You are one of the few that I have read integrate flocks when chicks are young (8 weeks) and I agree with you, it all depends on the circumstances and your set up. I have 20 chicks that are 9 weeks old and plan to integrate them to my 9 hens (15 months old) next week. Each group has its own coop but they will be sharing the run when they are not free ranging. I moved the chicks from the brooder a month ago and both groups have been in the "look but don't touch" situation since then. Every once in a while one or two of the chicks escape and I watch what my hens do, they seem to be OK as long as the chicks don't bother their waterer or feeder.
My plan is to let them all out to free range and supervise them. They have plenty of places to run and hide, when I bring them back to the run (they only free range under supervision because of the hawks) I plan to leave the partition door open wide enough that only the chicks can go thru it. This is the tough part because I don't know what would happen. Each flock has feeders and waterers so they won't be fighting for water and feed.
Wish me luck, I am hoping that everything will go smooth and the pecking order settles fast
fl.gif

I might add that this is my first time doing this so I hope I made the right decisions.
 
I integrate groups of differing age routinely. For me no minimum or maximum with respect to age it occurs; I am more concerned with age dispersion and that becomes more critical with younger groups because that equates to greater difference in size. Six to eight weeks difference is not a problem when youngest birds 12 weeks but can be a real problem when youngest are two weeks.


My preference is to add larger birds to smaller in younger birds turf. If larger birds are really hard on smaller ones, then I add the larger birds singly at 24-hour intervals working way down pecking order of larger birds. First introduced will be most likely to harass smaller new flockmates during first day but same larger birds will suppress aggression by subsequent additional large birds.
 
I have 6 easter-eggers at 10 weeks of age and 1 roo and 7 hens that are 20 weeks of age. They've been living in ajoining hen houses and pens. They've seen and heard each other for about 1 month. I'd like to get them comfortable with each other together before the weather changes and they can all be together in the larger hen house for winter. Should I just open the door between coops and see what happens?
 
Twyll said:
I have 6 easter-eggers at 10 weeks of age and 1 roo and 7 hens that are 20 weeks of age. They've been living in ajoining hen houses and pens. They've seen and heard each other for about 1 month. I'd like to get them comfortable with each other together before the weather changes and they can all be together in the larger hen house for winter. Should I just open the door between coops and see what happens?
Click to expand...
that's what I did. I added my three new chicks to a pen within my main pen. I eventually open their pen door and in the morning all nine of my flock would be in the main part of the pen together. It was great. Tonight was my first night putting the the new members on the roost in the big coop with the exciting flock. I'm nervous.
 

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