do I keep them seperate?

[countrygirl57]

I have 23 hens almost 1year old . My question is should I keep my 6 new baby barred rocks seperated from the flock. I have been checking many threads & am a little confused.

I am picking up the 1 or 2 day old chicks next week from our Farmers Co-op. Some say keep from flock for 1 month. Others say it's ok as long as the chicks are in the coup but seperated.

I was planing on keeping them in the house the first month, in a dog kennel, with the usual lamp food & water etc.

 

[elmo]

I think you may be reading discussions about raising chicks with a broody; often people leave the broody with the chicks in the coop separated from the rest of the flock by a pen or fence.

I don't know of anyone who throws newly hatched chicks by themselves in with the flock, without a broody hen to look out for them. Gah! That would be awful.

I think the usual rule of thumb when you're brooding chicks artificially is to integrate them into the flock only when they're big enough to defend themselves, so only when they're as big or nearly as big as the big girls. A one month old chick is nowhere near full grown, not to mention the fact that chicks of this age may well need supplemental heat at least at night.

 

[silkydragon]

i let mine outside with the free range flock as soon as they are feathered

 

[Tala]

Quote:
Mine also free range with the adults when they are 6-8 weeks old, but it only works because they have enough space to keep away from the "big bullies"

Essentially it's like having 2 (or more) separate flocks that happen to share the same back yard, they don't mingle together AT ALL until the youngsters are big enough to stand up to the adult birds (they start standing up for themselves somewhere in the 9-12 weeks range, depending on the birds). The different age groups sleep in separate coops at night and have separate feeders/waterers in their own quarters.

 

[elmo]

I think it's a quite different dynamic if you put younger, smaller chickens inside a run or coop with adults. There's no place for them to get away to, so they can end up being bullied mercilessly.

There's no shortage of space when chickens are free ranging, though.

 

[Jaguaress]

Quote:
This is done as a quarantine with new birds, so that they can be evaluated to make sure they're not harboring something that could kill the rest of the (original) flock. If they do present with illness, they can be treated as a little group, rather than having to treat an entire flock. Also, there have been extremely unfortunate cases of just one chick causing the eventual death of hundreds of birds because it wasn't quarantined and was contagiously ill.

Good luck with your new arrivals.

 

[countrygirl57]

I guess I didn't explain myself, enough. I have read that chicks from a didn't breeder may bring something to your old flock. That being said , my question is do I keep the chicks in the house or elsewhere, not near the flock or they ok in the coup but in a seperate room, with chicken wire between them. They would still have the heat lamp etc.

I hope this is clearer.

 

[countrygirl57]

Thanks that is what I wanted to know Jag---

 

[elmo]

Quote:
Oh! That's is a different question.

For a quarantine, you need to keep birds physically separate such that any disease from one couldn't be transmitted to the other. No, a chicken wire wall wouldn't provide that kind of separation.

After you determine that the new birds are healthy, you'll still have to face the issue of socially integrating them into the flock; some of those issues were already discussed up thread.