Amazing integration!

[Nicole01]

I bought 2 chicks, a red sex link and buff silkie late April/early March this year. They were kept in the house and I decided to hatch pure 2 wheaten and 4 blue wheaten Ameraucana's that hatched about 2-3 weeks ago. I ended up putting the two dog kennels/brooders side by side once the Ameraucana's hatched. Just two days ago I tried putting them together despite the age difference since I'd like them to integrate with the adults as soon as it warms up enough for the young ones. It's still unbelievably chilly here.

Well, the older two chicks love the new babies! Especially the silkie(which I think is a cockerel). The baby Ameracuana's lay all over the silkie and red sex link.

Here they are on their way for some outside time.

Hanging out outside.

 

[Nicole01]

Here was the initial setup

I now have the two front doors open, so they all have access to both kennels. Then my hubby will transfer the kennels inside the coop when ready.

 

[chfite]

They may soon want to all be in the same kennel. When I added to my flock last year, I build a new coop adjacent to the old one so that the new crowd would have the numerical space. The two runs shared a common fence. After a while, I opened the door between the runs so the two flocks could mix.

It wasn't long before the whole bunch moved into the old coop, leaving the new coop unused. Technically, they are overcrowded. They don't seem to be bothered by the numbers. I relented and closed off the unused coop and added to the amount of roosting bars in the old coop.

There is a bunch of chickens in that one coop. They forage daily, most of the day, so that may make the simple amount of space in the coop irrelevant.

Chris

 

[graciesmum]

I decided to put my 3 weeks old chicks in with my 8 week old chicks during the day one day, as it's the only place I could put them outside, well they have Bern there ever since, my older girls love them, they all get on so well, they let the younger ones snuggle under them and everything, it was great lol