Baby Peeps!

[NadiaT]

I went away for one weekend, and came home to find we had been loaned an incubator and a few eggs! The gaps in the incubator were quickly filled by eggs from our own little brood of hens (having recently been given a cockerel by a friend), and just under a week ago we had 14 amazing little chicks hatch! Forget the Royal wedding, our chicks were the news story all my friends wanted to hear about!!

My question is, and sorry if I am repeating something asked earlier, is when it is safe to mix the chicks with my established hens and cockerel (four hens and one cockerel)? At the moment they are in a box in my spare bedroom, but they really do need to go outside soon. I am just worried how the older birds will react. We've hatched eggs before, but the hens did it so there wasn't any problem!

Yes, I am a complete novice (

), who hasn't a clue what they are doing, and is hoping to learn as she goes along!!

Many thanks to you all in advance.

Nadia

PS How do I upload a photo of my little ones??

 

[SilkieChickenLover336]

welcome to BYC.... i dont know how to answer your question but i just wanted to say welcome!

 

[ScissorChick]

Welcome to Back Yard Chickens!

So glad you joined!

Now, I personally do not like to put chicks in with my flock until they are atleast most of the way grown, so

they can defeand themselves if one turns on it. (However, my chickens usually run instead of being brave

)

But putting chicks in with grown chickens is a disaster waiting to happen. Put them in a seperate coop by

themselves until they are big enough to defeand themselves.

As for your picture question...

Look at the top of the page. Theres a blue banner that has a bunch of links in it. One should say 'upload'

Click upload, and from there you can upload photos directly from your computer!

Click 'browse' and pick
a picture to upload, click submit and wait. Once it has uploaded, highlight the "image" URL, copy it, and paste it here.

 

[jettgirl24]

Definitely don't put baby chicks in with full grown chickens. They will almost definitely kill them.You will need to wait until they are about the same size to introduce them to each other and even then it is sometimes rough. Once your chicks are getting close to the same size as your big chickens I have found that the best way to introduce them is to securely fence off part of your coop with hardware cloth. Put the younger chickens in the pen for at least a week, preferably two or three weeks. This way they can see and smell one another and can check each other out but can't hurt each other. Once you have allowed them to get accustomed you can put the younger ones in with the big ones. The best time to do this is at night. Just put the younger ones on the roost with your older chickens while they are sleeping. If you're lucky they'll just accept them without too much squabbling outside from establishing a new pecking order. I recommend putting them together when you know you'll be home to watch them so when I've done this I usually do it on Friday night, that way I have two days off to keep an eye on them and make sure everything is going ok.

 

[NadiaT]

Thank you all for your help! I would have replied yesterday but I'm having problems with France Telecom and the Internet!

I think I shall keep them inside a bit longer anyway (I'm in Normandy in France and the nights can still be a bit chilly), then I shall introduce them slowly. My chickens are in what used to be an old cow shed with their own land fenced around them. I shall make a smaller pen next to that for the chicks to go in as a first step, so, as suggested, the older ones can get used to the smell of them and just having them around. Then I'll see how the older ones react and I shall no doubt be back online to you all for help and advice!

Mind you, we're having so much fun having the chicks in the house I confess I'm not in any hurry!!

Again, thank you all for your help and advice; watch this space!

Nadia

 

[KansasBoy]

Yeah especially in the cold... They shouldn't be outside until after 6 weeks unless it's over 70F! After that you could put them in a separate "grow out" coop/run! You could just put them in a small just during the day and you bring them in at night until they were a couple months old (they'll love the attention)

 

[NadiaT]

Got a weather warning for today, so no going outside just yet, but I have built a new run for the little ones right next to where the big ones play, so hopefully they'll all get used to each other.

Now, if only the children were this easy to deal with...! (Hope the picture works!)

 

[ScissorChick]

How Cute!

I brought our little ones indoors this morning. It got kinda cold