Adding More Chickens

[calebc311]

Hello BYC Community,
I've been raising a Comet and Barred Plymouth Rock for 6 months now and although they have ruined parts of the garden, they're a great edition to our backyard. I'm definitely thinking about adding 2 chicks to allow them more company (considering an Ameraucana and Orpington). Will it be okay to add chicks? My neighbor raises 3 chickens and when she bought 2 new chicks, she just allowed them to live together outside. How should I introduce new chickens?

 

[sumi]

Adding young chicks to grown chickens without a momma hen to protect them seldom works out. It's better to keep them in the same area, so they can see each other, but separated by a fence of some sort, so the bigger chickens can't hurt the little ones. Once the chicks have grown and are more or less the same size as the mature ones you can let them mingle. Here's an article on introducing new chickens to the flock that you will find helpful:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock

 

[cackleberrycam]

I would wait until the chicks are twelve weeks old. It really is a matter of "When are my chicks old enough to handle getting pecked at by the established hens?" There are many ways to introduce them, so I will give you a few.

One way is to separate them through a fence of chicken wire and let them interact through it while still not being able to fight each another. You can then eventually put them in together and their pecking order will not be so bad because they will already be somewhat accustomed to each other.

You can also put them on the roost full of the established hens at night so that when the established hens wake up in the morning and see all the new pullets with them, the will not realize that they are newcomers and will not treat them badly.

You can also just stick them right in with the hens and let them sort out the pecking order on their own.

Cackleberrycam