I have three 7 week old hens (a red sexlink, a welsummer and an australorp). I was thinking about adding two 9 week old Easter Eggers. Is this a bad idea? Is the age difference too dramatic? Any tips for successful integration? Thanks!!
That's not much age difference, but there will be the usual posturing. Are you concerned about bio-security or transfer of disease?
i have integrated birds of all ages without any trouble. Here's what I do.... i have two runs and housing separated by nylon fencing(cheap, since it's in the middle of my "real" fencing. I have birds in each run and i feed the scratch along the dividing nylon fence. I do this for about 2 weeks and then combine them with ease. If the birds are older I do it for more time. This seems to work great for me.
Well, I can't afford a second coop right now, so I can't keep them separate for any length of time. I'm not really concerned about the transferring of disease. I am more concerned about a bird getting hurt, injured or killed.
You should have no problem as your pullets are only a couple of weeks apart in age. They will still do the chest bumping and establishing their pecking order.
I have some 1 year old hens and just got some 8 week old hens, can I integrate them the same way or do I need to do some thing different?
We combined our two groups that were two weeks apart. but they all went into the just built coop. No problems. I called it chicken shock and awe. Everyone was in a new location so all had to adjust. Dave
Love the shock and awe term Dave. I did a similar thing with 8mth-1yr old hens and my RIR juveniles. plus I kept the RIRs separate (inside the same coop at night) until the pecking order was sorted out. no problems
This is all very interesting. What about combining 4 6month old pullets with 3 or 4 2 month old bantams? Do you think it would work? We're looking down the road.... Married to a wonderful, handy husband with 3 beautiful daughters and 4 silly chickens - 1 BO, 1 RIR, 1 Ameracauna, and 1 ?