Combining newbies with adults - how soon?

[tleglue]

About 6 weeks ago, we bought some new chicks - 2 Aracaunas, 3 bantam silkies, and 4 Americaunas - 9 in all and all pullets. The babies are all roughly the same age (within a day or two). We already had 6 adult red sex link hens. They are all just about a year and a half old. We've had the babies in the hen house already, but they have been in a separate tub that was large enough for them to move around and have their feed and water without being disturbed by the adults until now. They are beginning to outgrow their tub. We tried setting one or two in the hen house while we were nearby and several of the adults lunged for them. Any advice on how soon and how to integrate would be very much welcomed as we certainly would prefer not to lose anyone.

 

[sumi]

Ideally you should keep the chicks separate until they are more or less fully grown before letting them mingle with the adults, but if your older birds play along you can do it sooner. They are still too young and vulnerable at the moment though. Would it be possible for you to separate an area for the chicks in the existing run/area where the older birds hang out? Keep them separate, but within sight of each other, so the older birds can get used to the young ones and get to know them for a few weeks before letting them hang out together. That would make things much easier later when you let them mingle, though there will probably still be some bullying as the youngsters are getting put in their place in the pecking order, it shouldn't be excessive.

 

[lalaland]

chicken wire is easy to use to make a separate area in the hen house too for the chicks. You may need to use netting to keep the chicks in and the older hens out. You could also use a dog or cat carrier - but they will integrate faster if the adults can see the babies as much as possible. I

Chicken wire or plastic mesh netting also will work in your run to partition off a separae area for the chicks. Again, use netting to keep chicks in and adults out. You may need to hand carry the chicks from the hen house to the chick run in the morning and back at night. Be sure to have shade and weather protection in the run - a plastic dog or cat carrier works great for this.

When chicks are in the run in their own area, start feeding scratch or something to both chicks and the adults by sprinkling it on both sides of the partition - so they are eating very close to each other but safe from adults.

I usually integrate (remove barriers) around 4 months - depends on the hens. Sometimes there are some agressive ones so more time is needed. WHen you integrate, be sure you are there to watch, and provide hiding spots/barriers for the young ones -

 

[tleglue]

Thanks for the welcome!

Our hen house is large - it's actually an old outbuilding, so it has plenty of room for us to make a separate area with chicken wire. We were planning on doing something, but my husband was thinking cage-sized. I'm glad to know it needs to last until they're about 4 months old or so because that means we need to go bigger than his original plan.

Good idea on the run as well. We have some room there too and should be able to set something up for them.

Since the silkies are bantams and everyone else is full-sized, should we expect any integration issues there?

Thanks again!

Tammy

 

[LooseyGoosey]

It depends on the chickens. My hens and rooster are really good with the babies. I have lots of 9 week old babies and 5 week old babies and then 7 ducks that I threw in with my older hens. I watch for picking for the first couple of days but They've all done REALLY good so far. I can't speak for anyone else's chickens though...