chicks, hens and a new coop

[yogifink]

hey ya'll I have a delima on my hands and am hoping for some guidance. My wife and I just got 4 new chicks to intorduce to our 3 laying hens. The coop we have is not big enough to house 7 ladies, so I am building a new coop to accomidate all of our girls. So...I need to mingle the chicks and the hens and introduce everyone to the new coop. I am not sure what order I should do this in. Thinking it would be best to put the chicks in the new coop so they establish it as home first, and then introduce the hens to the mix a few days/weeks later? Or maybe would it be better to put everyone in the new coop, and keep the chicks in a dog kennel for a while?

Thanks for the help

 

[donrae]

Wait until everyone's roughly the same size. Trying to put chicks less than four months in with grown hens can easily lead to dead chicks. Then, you're on the right track, put the younger birds in first, let them get established, then the big girls.

 

[AussieHens96]

hey ya'll I have a delima on my hands and am hoping for some guidance. My wife and I just got 4 new chicks to intorduce to our 3 laying hens. The coop we have is not big enough to house 7 ladies, so I am building a new coop to accomidate all of our girls. So...I need to mingle the chicks and the hens and introduce everyone to the new coop. I am not sure what order I should do this in. Thinking it would be best to put the chicks in the new coop so they establish it as home first, and then introduce the hens to the mix a few days/weeks later? Or maybe would it be better to put everyone in the new coop, and keep the chicks in a dog kennel for a while?

Thanks for the help

I heard chickens are more accepting if you place them in the coop, with your girls, at night. Cause in the morning, they're like "well, hello there, we have new neighbours!" After that, though, I'd be watching them for a week or so to let them sort themselves into a suitable pecking order so expect some pecking or charging but they shouldn't be drawing blood. If anything serious develops, seperate but I don't think you should have any problems. I wouldn't worry about the chicks unless they're under 8 weeks and/or rather small.