Best way to integrate a LOT of chicks into a small flock

mrsdelore

Songster
6 Years
Apr 6, 2015
103
58
131
Upstate, NY
I started with a small flock last year and after losing one bird over the winter, I have five adult Plymouth rock hens. They are well handled and pretty docile birds. We rarely see any fighting or pecking amongst them.

However....I fear I am about to rock their chicken world as I have 22 chicks in my brooder! Darn chicken math! Sneaks up on you! And technically I have 28, but 6 are cornish rocks that it's probably pointless to introduce to the flock rather than just fence a temporary yard for them once it's warm enough.

My oldest chicks, 6 golden comets, are now 6 weeks old, nearly fully feathered (just a tiny bit of fluff here and there on the head) and are sooooooo bored in the brooder that they are almost becoming a nuisance. To me, that says they are ready to start going outside on nice days and almost ready to transition to the flock. But, the rest of my babies are younger (the product of weekly trips to Tractor Supply) and won't be ready to go outside for several more weeks. I have 3 silkies and 3 barred rocks that are just about 4 weeks old, 4 australorps that are just two weeks old and 6 buff orpingtons that are just a week old.

So, that long winded introduction leads up to my question. For my existing flock of adult hens, as well as for the chicks, what would be the best way to introduce the mob? Do I get the 6 golden comets out there first when they are ready and then introduce a second batch when the rest of the chicks are ready? (I really don't want to separate the silkies and the barred rocks from the smaller babies as they have taken to mothering the chicks.) Or is it better to keep the comets in the brooder (which is large, but definitely getting a bit cramped as they grow) and introduce the whole 22 of them at once?

Thanks for any advice!
 
Can you partition your coop using a temporary wall with 2-3 small doors in between?
Same concept as you have in your brooder setup.....just larger scale.

Here's some notes I've taken on integration that I found to be very helpful.......
......take what applies or might help and ignore the rest.
See if any of them, or the links provided at the bottom, might offer some tips that will assist you in your situation:

Integration of new chickens into flock.


Consider medical quarantine:
BYC Medical Quarantine Article
Poultry Biosecurity
BYC 'medical quarantine' search

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact. Integrating new birds of equal size works best.

For smaller chicks I used a large wire dog crate right in the coop for the smallers. I removed the crate door and put up a piece of wire fencing over the opening and bent up one corner just enough for the smallers to fit thru but the biggers could not. Feed and water inside the crate for the smallers. Make sure the smallers know how to get in and out of the crate opening before exposing them to the olders. this worked out great for me, by the time the crate was too small for the them to roost in there(about 3 weeks), they had pretty much integrated themselves to the olders.

If you have too many smallers to fit in a crate you can partition off part of the coop with a wire wall and make the same openings for smallers escape.


The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide out of line of sight and/or up and away from any bully birds.

Read up on integration..... BYC advanced search>titles only>integration
This is good place to start reading:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock
 
Can you partition your coop using a temporary wall with 2-3 small doors in between?
Same concept as you have in your brooder setup.....just larger scale.

Here's some notes I've taken on integration that I found to be very helpful.......
......take what applies or might help and ignore the rest.
See if any of them, or the links provided at the bottom, might offer some tips that will assist you in your situation:

Integration of new chickens into flock.


Consider medical quarantine:
BYC Medical Quarantine Article
Poultry Biosecurity
BYC 'medical quarantine' search

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact. Integrating new birds of equal size works best.

For smaller chicks I used a large wire dog crate right in the coop for the smallers. I removed the crate door and put up a piece of wire fencing over the opening and bent up one corner just enough for the smallers to fit thru but the biggers could not. Feed and water inside the crate for the smallers. Make sure the smallers know how to get in and out of the crate opening before exposing them to the olders. this worked out great for me, by the time the crate was too small for the them to roost in there(about 3 weeks), they had pretty much integrated themselves to the olders.

If you have too many smallers to fit in a crate you can partition off part of the coop with a wire wall and make the same openings for smallers escape.


The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide out of line of sight and/or up and away from any bully birds.

Read up on integration..... BYC advanced search>titles only>integration
This is good place to start reading:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock


Thanks for the info. My plan is to partition off the back end of my run leading up to the coop with chicken wire so everyone can see each other but not touch. I have a few options as to the coop. 1. I have a small mini coop that I can put out for the little ones to use. 2. I can divide the coop in half from floor to ceiling with chicken wire and/or plywood as the coop has doors front and back. The smaller ones would be in the back half with the bigger ones in the front. So I think I have a good handle on that part of the process.

My bigger question is should I wait and introduce my babies all at once? Or is it ok to go ahead and introduce the 6 biggest ones first and follow with the older ones when they are ready?
 
You might want to wait until all the youngers are coexisting peacefully before beginning integration into the main flock.
From the sounds of it on your other post, that won't be longer than a couple weeks away.

I had a coop partition already tho, you can kinda see the partition wall to the left in the pics below.
So I integrated the 2 oldest groups of chicks, then set up escape area for youngest chicks in coop partition and put all the chicks in the partition.
By the time the youngest wouldn't fit into the escape area, they were all pretty well integrated.



 
The chicks all co-exist in the brooder now, but I'm worried the biggest ones are getting too big to stay in there much longer. That's why I think I'm going to end up having to move them outside before the other chicks are ready. There is a 5-week difference between my oldest chicks and my youngest ones.

Anyway, I just spent the morning partitioning off part of the chicken run and diving the coop in half with chicken wire so that when it's time, I can easily move the young ones out there and the older hens will have already had time to get used to the divided run and coop.

Here are some photos.

Front of the current run.



Side view - partitioned off from the front of the coop to the back of the run outside.




Back of the run where the babies will go.




Old screen doors make great dividers!




Inside - hard to see, but I put in chicken wire from top to bottom right down the middle of the coop, so they can coexist in there.



My hens enjoying some fresh pine shavings in their half of the coop. Doesn't seem to bother them at all that they can't get to the back part.




Of course, all this is temporary as we are putting in a bigger coop and run (as soon as the weather improves) to accommodate our expanded flock.
 

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