Adding 8 chicks to a 5 hen flock

[hdbrat84]

Hi! I have 8 two week old chicks in a brooder in my garage and five 6-7 month old hens in a coop outside in NC. I have heard lots of different ways to add them into my current flock but I would like to hear what people say about my specific conditions. My current flock are in a 8 by 8 coop that has about 18' of roosting bars around the top not including the rafters where two currently roost. I have 6 working nesting boxes. And they are in a half wooded 6' high chain link fence I have aproned wire around the whole thing and it has 1700 square feet for them to run around in. I free range them when I am home but keep them in the fence when I am not for doggy purposes! How can I introduce them with out building a fenced in area for the new ones? How old should the new ones be? My girls are very sweet and never peck at each other or chase each other....unless one has found a snake or something. I raised them since they were chicks my kids tote them around the yard like toys. I don't see any chicken that is really the boss. I cant put the new chicks in the run while the chickens are out can I? I mean I can put food and water in and out of the run so the chicks inside can have access and the girls free ranging can outside the run but what if they have to lay an egg?? The nesting boxes are in the coop! I want the new ones to know where home is and get used to the coop and run before I throw them in there especially since I will be free ranging. My sweet husband has built my beautiful coop and put up with my chicken obsession and if I told him I had to have him build a separate fenced in area of the chain link fence that will eventually be taken down when they are introduced he might actually kill me!! I don't want this to happen. And even if I did that I would either have to gather them up and put them in the coop with the others at night or cart them back half way across our 5 acres to the garage....I lock up our girls at night because we live in the country and the run is open at the top for raccoons and such to climb over. Please help me figure out the best way!!

 

[azygous]

The very best way to introduce young chicks to adult chickens is in a temporary safe "play pen" within the large run. I do it beginning around two weeks when the weather is around 70 or above. The chicks get to play outdoors and the adult chickens begin to accept them into the flock. When the chicks show indications of cooling down, I take them back indoors to the brooder.

Around three to four weeks, a small entrance/exit is provided in the playpen so the chicks can explore the larger run. This is crucial for their safety. They absolutely need some sort of safe haven to retreat to when chased and bullied.

You can create this safe area with a clearance at the bottom of about four or five inches or make 5 x 7 inch pop holes, openings the adults can't squeeze through. Some people have been able to provide enough "foils" or barricades the chicks can run behind and hide or hop up onto to evade the adults. But the safe pen also provides a haven for the chick feed and water so the adults can't bully the chicks from getting enough to eat and drink.

By the time the chicks are six to eight weeks old, they will be accepted enough as belonging to the flock to move them into the coop with the adults.

 

[hdbrat84]

So I definitely need to build something else...I have a blue kiddie pool with 3' hardware cloth wrapped around it for the brooder I wonder if I can just take the hardware cloth off of it and place that in the run for the chicks? Later I could cut a hole at the bottom, do you think that'll be big enough? I'm trying not to have to build anything else.