Blending younger chicks, with older ones....

[Frosty]

Sometimes I put up a pen for the younger chicks and add just a few of the older birds in. A few days later, and another one or two, then when the two flocks are about the same size, I add the rest of the older chickens to the pen with younger birds. That way I am not adding new birds to the older birds territory.

 

[Susan Mc]

Quote:
I was going to suggest that myself! The other way seems easier altogether, but if the older birds insist on harassing the younger ones I think you'd need to resort to this method.

 

[thewhyblockl]

I did it, and with the help and advice of some of the kind people on BYC it went really well. I asked the same question as you, and based on all of the responses I decided to place the 5 weekers in a smallish run inside of the large run fro a week and then began letting them out an hour a day for very supervised play time. I stayed in with them and had to shoosh the big (12 week) bullies away often with a large palm frond I kept handy. I had to throw seed down in two clearly separate areas during 'play' hour so the little ones wouldn't be hassled as much. Sometimes I really had to intimidate the older chicks to keep them on one side of the run, because they were very aggressive at first. But after a few long worried days they began to mellow out, and continued to mellow out over the following week until I finally felt confident about leaving the young ones out for a few hours semi-supervised time. After a week I removed the small run and things went fairly well. Only mild bullying, no serious pecking or mobbing. It took a little patience but it payed off! Now the chicks are almost grown, most of them are male, and I am faced with a whole new set of chicken problems!!

 

[juliette2009]

Good Luck!

 

[scottfarm]

Good Luck With What Ever You Do , I Like The Idea Of Rocking Their World Up When You Do Add The New Ones.. Just Watch Them For A While ..

 

[Atrayou]

This is something I too worry about. I kept the one chick that I hand reared out of the coop from last year. She settled right in with my 2 free roamers( let them run around the barn and they only go outside if I am there )I So far this year I have 2 baby chick's out of the clutch they are brooding. Sadly 2 of them died because they would not let them out to feed. It has been my experience if I allow them to raise their own babies they do fine in the coop. BUT I have never tried to introduce a new chicken to the flock. The personalities of the hand reared to the regular rearing is so huge that I worry about putting them into the coop. My Jenny hen from last year was very confused just from being put into the barn. I got lucky and found a really nice bunny cage that stands on tall legs from the dump. Brought it home and cleaned it all up. It even has a nesting box built in. I put a few perches up from Petco the ones that screw in and she has been fine ever since. She lays her eggs in that cage. She sleeps on the perch outside of the cage and even shares the cage with her sister hen for egg laying.
I think my fears are mostly because the hen that is now a free roamer is Jenny's sister that was reared by the chickens. I find her to be aggressive towards Jenny. So I can not imagine introducing a clutch of new hens to the coop. I think it would terrify them. This is just my thought pattern and it may be wrong but I think if I allow the chick's I am rearing now to free roam they have more room to get away if Sissy is aggressive towards them. Plus the stress of the rooster is another factor I have to think about. I am happy I came across this thread as I too wonder and worry about this when the time comes.