Adding babies to the flock

[Remudamom]

I want to add my baby banties to the rest of my banty flock, and move my RIRs, California Whites and Silver Laced Wyandottes to their separate chicken house. The RIR are beginning to feather out. What temps will they need?

 

[JennsPeeps]

1. They need to be fully feathered (around 5 weeks) to move outside.

2. Birds should be roughly the same size. It might be safest to put the RIR with the full-grown banties for now and then move them to the standard flock when they're older/bigger (unless there isn't an existing flock now).

3. The banty babies need to be closer to the size of the banty adults before you incorporate them. Put them in a separate enclosure that's within view but keep them separated for a while longer. Otherwise the babies will get beat up or even killed by the older ones.

 

[cyanne]

Another good trick to use is to pen the babies in a cage INSIDE the coop with the big birds for a while before releasing them. I use a wire dog crate that I set up with food and water for the babies once they are able to be out without heat. I keep them in there for a couple of weeks so that the big birds can see them but not attack. Then I eventually just open the door to the crate to let the babies begin exploring on their own.

By then the big girls are usually used to the newcomers and mostly leave them alone unless they get underfoot, but I also make sure there are lots of hiding places for the little ones to run too in case they get on one of the big girls nerves and get chased.

 

[DiVon80]

Thats a good idear