Can I integrate 9 week old hens in with my 7 week olds?

[banananutmuffin]

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!!

 

[Fred's Hens]

That's not much age difference, but there will be the usual posturing. Are you concerned about bio-security or transfer of disease?

 

[fresheggs4u]

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.

 

[banananutmuffin]

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.

 

[cmom]

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.

 

[amedley]

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?

 

[daver]

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

 

[4acresNachick]

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

 

[janf1914]

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 ?