3months old

[rigagirl]

i have chicks that are just about 3 months and they are too big for where i am keeping them.
i read on here that someone said they snuck the chicks in the coop at night and the next morning the chickens never new they had roommates. i realy need to do this and my question is the food, i am about to start them on chick grower is it ok to mix the starter and laying pellets in the same feeder or no? or should i not even put them together yet?

 

[crooked stripe]

I put both feeds in the coop. As it all turns out they all seem to prefer the starter feed. I haven't noticed any difference in egg production. Mine all free range. When you introduce them to the coop give the young ones something to hide in. I use a dog crate. When they get scared or are being pecked on they hide in there. I have noticed it takes about a week till they all tolerate the new ones. There is still some pecking but nothing serious. The young ones learn to steer clear of the full size ones. Hope this helps. John

 

[rigagirl]

oh i should have mentioned that i have a rooster already and 3 of the chicks are roosters. i heard that the existing rooster will kill new roosters is that true?

 

[rigagirl]

anyone?

 

[crooked stripe]

Sorry I don't have an answer.

 

[rigagirl]

tonight is the night. my husband is going to put all the hen into the coop after dark and hope everything is going to be ok. we will be keeping the 3 roosters separate for now till i figure out what i am going to do.

 

[SimplyForties]

Good luck - let us know how it goes!

 

[Chickenaddict]

Quote:
Not always the case, it depends on the roo. I have 6 roos running around together, 5 of them once upon a time were babies put in with the original roo and he was just fine with them until they got old enough to challenge him, then they learned the hard way. He fought with one of my serama roos once and both were pretty beat up but since then they keep a safe distance from each other and no longer have issues. All mine free range so they have plenty of room to run and hide if need be but so far that is the only problem i have had with having that many run together.

 

[cmom]

You can try slipping them in the coop at night. You didn't say how old your other chickens are. The first time I put my 3 month old chicks with 1 1/2 yr old hens it didn't go well and the hen chased and pecked at the pullets so I separated them. Luckily I have two coops so I could put the pullets in one and the hens in another. The next time I tried to integrate them I did it while the birds were in their yard free ranging. I put plenty of treats out so the hens would hopefully fixate more on the treats than on the pullets. All went fine except for a couple of hens that were very aggressive. They would jump on the pullets and peck the heck out of them. I thought they might kill them so I removed the two aggressive hens and put them in jail for awhile. Jail pretty much cured one hen but the other was still a bully. I put her in jail for a few more days. When she came out I thought she had tamed down until I caught her on and wailing away at a pullet. I had a hose handy and gave her a good blast of water. It surprised her so because she was so intent on the pullet. She ran into the coop and didn't come out for awhile. I caught her a few more times after that and surprised her with more squirts with the hose. She finally calmed down. Maybe she was tired of being squirted.

 

[rigagirl]

the chickens i have are 1 1/2 yrs. i am worried about one chick that is 1/2 the size of the rest at 3 months. i really would rather move them all at once then not at all, hubby doesn't understand that he just wants to get it over with. I do have a second coop but now that we have new one he wants to tear it down maybe i can talk him into keeping it at least another month, not like its in the way.