Another integration question

[jwhite3141]

Greetings!

We're fairly new to chickens and have a question about introducing new our 5wk old chicks to 9 week old chicks.

The older group consists of 2 black australorps, 1 buff orpington, and 1 silver laced wyandotte.

The younger group consists of 1 black austalorp, 1 silver laced wyandotte, 1 buff orpington, and 1 columbian wyandotte.


We first tried to indtroduce them out in the yard 2 weeks ago and the older gals really took a round out of the younger gals so we seperated them again.

We've since built a seperate run within the existing run so they can live side by side for a few weeks before they are put together.

The problem we're having is that the younger columbian wandotte is very slow feathering out, she looks like a large fluffy chick and is healthey in all respects, she just has very few feathers at this point. The young buff orpington is also a slow grower, mayber 1/2 the size of the others her age.

Current plan is to keep them side by side for two weeks then introduce them in the coop after dark, let them out into their run at first light and introduce distractions into the run (large children's toys, color plastic milk crates, hanging cd's, etc.

Any recomendations as to how to safely integrate the two flocks or are we just being a tad overprotective?

 

[Backyard Hencam]

Having lots of places for the chicks to run into when they are being chased is important. Like putting those milk crates 4-5 inches from a fence and from each other, works well. They'll squeeze through and the big gals won't be able to follow. Remember, the little ones are usually quick and hopefully alert.
Best of luck!