16 wk olds & 8 wk olds

[Charrisse]

I have a flock of approx 16 week old hens (25) and 1 roo.
Adding to them, I have 9 newbies - that have been in a brooder in the big girl coop since they were two days old. They are about 8 weeks old now. The nine newbies have at LEAST 1 roo, possibly a total of three, I cant tell on the Amerucanas yet. The brooder they are in is now just chicken wire separating the big guys from the little guys.
I tried to let one of the more curious little ones play in the yard with the big girls and roo today, and they were having none of it, pecking, chasing, terrorizing that poor Amerucana baby, till she/he jumped in my lap and eventually fell asleep of sheer exhaustion lol
How do I integrate the smaller ones? The coop is plenty large enough, and the run is 2000 SQ ft. I thought by letting them on "neutral ground" like the yard, not the run, they might not be so aggressive, but me thinks I was wrong.
Are the little ones big enough to introduce yet?

 

[Den in Penn]

As you found out putting a single smaller chick in with the larger older ones doesn't go well. They can tag team it to death with out any effort. At 16 weeks the pullets are nearly at full size. If you need to combine them now provide plenty of places that the 8 week olds can run to to hide. The first step would be an opening in the divider that just the small ones can get through. Leave it to them when to come out. Eventually they should be able to come out without being hounded to badly. If you can wait till the 8 weeks are close in size, it might be better.

 

[karlamaria]

chances are you will need to make sure all are about the same size or close to it. your babies are to small to go into the same yard as the 16 week olds unless you can run interference and even then you may not be able to do it . putting chickens in with the bigger girls takes time and patience. Im at that juncture right now, I have 1 year olds and 12 week olds and its a no go ! I will need to let my pullets get much older . I also have 2, 3 week olds with a mama, I do not want them killing my little ones. its going to take time and patience. I plan to work on it this weekend, and for the next several weeks. the pen is right inside the other pen so they can look apon each other, but I tried to put them togethere in the yard 2 times, a buff went nuts and tried to commit harry carry lol