Chicken Integration Plan: What Am I Missing?

[MIChickandGuinea]

I have two groups of young chickens. The older ones are 7 pullets, 16 weeks old. They are 1 white leghorn, 2 Isa Browns, 2 black marans, 2 aracaunas. The younger ones are 2 pullets (1 light brahma and 1 Americauna) and 1 "oops" Americauna rooster, 9 weeks old. Size-wise, they are pretty similar. I have been trying to introduce the two groups so that I can have them all in one coop/pen, but so far, I don't feel like I'm succeeding. The older ones chase and peck the younger ones mercilessly when I put them together.

Things I'm trying: The youngers are living in a chicken tractor coop right next to the olders, and have been for many weeks already. They are mostly OK when they're all free-ranging in the yard together, but only because the littles steer entirely clear of the older ones. Then I have tried taking our two calmest, shyest big girls and housing them in the chicken tractor with the littles, just to create a larger "gang" so that the littles have allies in the big coop when it comes time to put them together. But the littles are terrified of the big girls in their coop, and they just hide inside the coop all day, only darting out to eat some food when they think the big girls aren't looking (and the two big girls aren't being terribly nice, either - they do chase and peck the littles when they have the chance). The only thing I will say that's working well in the chicken tractor is that they all sleep peacefully together on the perch. But daytime antics are still not looking great. We've been trying this for about a week now, and I am not seeing any changes to the behavior of the bigs and littles in the chicken tractor.

I would love to hear some more ideas for how to get my two groups to be one group!! Our chicken coop/pen is very ample, plenty large for 10 birds to flap and run and tootle about and dust bathe and perch. Their resistance to integration is not because of overcrowding. And while free-ranging is working OK, I'm trying to limit that right now because I think my older flock has a couple ladies who are thinking about laying an egg, and I don't want them out in the forest laying their pretty eggs for raccoons. I want them cooped for now so that they establish the habit of putting their eggs in the nesting boxes!!

Thanks for your ideas.

 

[Pork Pie]

It seems like you are doing well. Time is the key from my experience. I'd not expect things to be calm for a month or so. Persist with your plan, ensuring you have multiple feeders. Since you have your younger birds the their own coop (tractor) then you are in an ideal situation, as the young ones will decide when is the right time to roost with the older birds (which could be longer than 2 months) It's how I integrate new birds to my flock - I let them make the decisions.

 

[sfgwife]

Can you section off a spot in the run where only the littles can go to for cover? Our biggers were in a tractor.. we put the dog crate in the tractor with the bigs for a few weeks. Then when we got the coop and run done we put the littles in the dog crate still in with everyone else for a few days. Then made where only the littles could get in the dog crate. Of course all the biggs had have their pecks in lettin the littles know they were the littles but it was not horrible. The biggs are goin peck the littles but it shouldnt be bloodletting hurt. The first few days of the littles bein out thei stayed under the coop a lot only comin out more in the evenings when the roo would put the biggs to bed and they would go up the side of the fence to venture quite a bit. We also put the crate in the coop at bedtime but it was closed. After a few days of all that and not much payin attention of the biggs we put the littles on the roost. And all was ok. There are a few biggs that don't let the little sleep beside them but the littles have their spot they like on the roost.

 

[lazy gardener]

Keep giving them free range time. feed them together when they are out on free range: give them some scratch, or some of their pellets. If you give them free range time towards the end of the day, chances of an egg getting laid at large will be minimized. As PP asked, can you section off part of your run? You might try putting your "next to the lowest pecking order" gal in with them. But only put in one! and leave her with them for a week or so. A single will be more motivated to play nice. You can also put the Bigs out for free range while putting the Littles into the coop/run to explore. Be sure to give them plenty of goodies to look for in the bedding when you do. What are the dimensions of your coop and your run. A statement that it is plenty big enough can mean very many different things to very many different people.

 

[MIChickandGuinea]

Keep giving them free range time. feed them together when they are out on free range: give them some scratch, or some of their pellets. If you give them free range time towards the end of the day, chances of an egg getting laid at large will be minimized. As PP asked, can you section off part of your run? You might try putting your "next to the lowest pecking order" gal in with them. But only put in one! and leave her with them for a week or so. A single will be more motivated to play nice. You can also put the Bigs out for free range while putting the Littles into the coop/run to explore. Be sure to give them plenty of goodies to look for in the bedding when you do. What are the dimensions of your coop and your run. A statement that it is plenty big enough can mean very many different things to very many different people.

Our elevated coop is 3' x 3' plus a 3' x 2' extra sidecar nesting box. There's a pen under the coop which is 3'x6', and then there's a connected, covered run that's 8' x 12'. The chicken tractor coop part is 2'x5' with a 4' x 5' enclosed pen. The tractor is small, and not intended for long-term residency.

 

[MIChickandGuinea]

Keep giving them free range time. feed them together when they are out on free range: give them some scratch, or some of their pellets. If you give them free range time towards the end of the day, chances of an egg getting laid at large will be minimized. As PP asked, can you section off part of your run? You might try putting your "next to the lowest pecking order" gal in with them. But only put in one! and leave her with them for a week or so. A single will be more motivated to play nice. You can also put the Bigs out for free range while putting the Littles into the coop/run to explore. Be sure to give them plenty of goodies to look for in the bedding when you do. What are the dimensions of your coop and your run. A statement that it is plenty big enough can mean very many different things to very many different people.

 

[lazy gardener]

What are your intentions for their coop during the winter? The general recommendation for a back yard flock is 4 s.f. in the coop and 10 s.f. in the run per bird. Your enclosed coop only has 9 s.f. The built on, attached run portion to your coop has 96 s.f. and the run portion of the coop has 18 s.f. If you enclose all of the outside portion of the coop for the winter months, you will still only have 27 s.f. of coop space. Too tight IMO for 10 birds, especially if one of those is a cockerel. And, especially in your likely winter weather.

If you can give your birds lots of multi level opportunities in the run, as well as out of sight opportunities, that will help with the integration. Extra feed and water stations will also help.

 

[orchardflock]

We also have a group of six 17 week old pullets and a group of six 8 week old pullets we are trying to integrate. The 17 week olds have already been integrated (mostly - they still sleep separately by choice) with five 1 year old hens. I don't know if this is a general thing or not, but it really obvious that the 17 week old pullets are far more aggressive and less welcoming to the younger chicks than our adult hens. We have one buff orpington pullet that is especially aggressive, which surprised me.

Our set up is we have a ~30' x 30' enclosed chicken yard with a 8' x 8' chicken coop. When we are not faced with new egg layers/hiders we often let them roam our larger 3 acre property. The babies are confined to a chicken tractor within the 30' x 30' yard. They've been there since they were about 4 weeks old so everyone could get used to each other. We tried once last week to let them out, and it did not go well, so we're going to try again in a week or two when they are bigger.