Brand New Chickster

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layne517

layne517

Chirping
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Sep 1, 2015
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Hi everyone!

I am brand new to raising chicks and although I've done a TON of research, I still have a million questions! I hope not to get too much on y'alls nerves, lol.

I have 7 pullets (10 weeks old). My neighbor gave me his 2 year old Cuckoo Maran and 3 year old Barred Rock. He and his wife are elderly and just don't feel like taking care of them any longer. They are gorgeous! Very healthy and very well taken care of.

I'm wondering if it would be okay to introduce them into my pullet flock? On a side note - I don't know if this makes a difference, but apparently they were breaking their eggs so he put blinders on them :(

Thanks in advance for any advice!
 
Hello there and welcome to BYC!
frow.gif


So glad you could join our community!

Don't worry about being new to this and asking questions. We were all new at this at one point and had to start somewhere! But you have come to the right place for all the fun and learning!

You might start by doing some reading in our Learning Center. Lots of helpful tips and hints on all the aspects of keeping poultry...https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center

Yes, Marans are gorgeous as are Barred Rocks! Your pullets are getting close but I would wait a couple more weeks yet. You will need to wait until your pullets are at least 3 months (12 weeks) old before mixing them with adult birds. They are still too small to defend themselves and the adults could hurt or gravely injure them. So what you need to do is keep them together but separated by a fence or wire or some enclosure. Everybody sees but nobody touches. Leave them all this way for about 3 weeks. This will give them all a chance to get to know each other from behind wire. The aggression should be minimal when you eventually do mix. And put out more food and water stations. Adults love to guard these areas from any new birds and they can literally starve out the chicks. It takes a couple of months for new birds to really get integrated into a flock.

Blinders are for aggression, not for egg eating. So you need to take these off of the birds. Egg eating and breaking stems from not enough protein in their diets or because it has become a habit. I have an old hen that no longer puts a shell on and she lays yolks. Wow...the flock goes nuts for these yolks! But it turned them all into egg eaters for a while. So what I did was hung curtains over the boxes. This keeps the boxes nice and dark and the hens won't mess with the eggs inside. Leave just a slit in the middle so the hen has to stick her head inside and slips in. She will lay her egg and leave when she is done as the box is dark. I also keep fake eggs in the boxes at all times so that if they DO go cruising for eggs, they learn that these fake eggs are impenetrable and they leave the real ones alone.

If you have any further questions, feel free to ask around the forums or here as well!

Good luck with your chicks and new flock and welcome to ours! :-)
 
Welcome to BYC. Glad you decided to join our flock. TwoCrows has done an excellent job answering your question and has given you some great advice so I'll just say, please feel free to ask any other questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck with your flock.
 

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