Do I let my week old chicks free range with their mum?

[clairc]

I have week old chicks with mum currently in a separate area to the flock (but within the free range area).
Mum is now leaving them to eat for short periods through the day and always goes back to them.
My question is do I let the chicks go with her and therefore be with the other adults ? (3 others adults).

 

[Ridgerunner]

I let my broody hens integrate her chicks with the flock. She usually keeps a certain distance from the other adults but I just leave that up to her. If you do not allow her to integrate them for you, you will have to integrate them yourself later.

 

[clairc]

Thank you. I’ve let them out with her and they’ve had a couple of hours enjoying scratching around being fed by mum. The other chickens have had a couple of pecks but mum is largely asserting her authority over the other girls

 

[Perris]

Little disciplinary pecks will not hurt the chicks, and although there's often a lot of noise, as long as no blood is drawn, you do not need to intervene. Most hens are very tolerant of chicks, even when they are being really annoying, e.g.

My broodies hatch within the flock and the chicks are ranging as soon as they come off the nest. It should be fine for yours too.

 

[Altairsky]

At which age do they naturally come off the nest? Due to my setup (well, actually due to the extremely inconvenient place my serial broody likes to nest) I need to kick the broody and her chicks out and in a separate pen on day 2.

 

[Perris]

At which age do they naturally come off the nest?

Day 2 or 3 here. The broody leads the way when she's ready, and the chicks follow, boldest first, most timid by about 20 minutes later in the worst case, after she's been in and out several times or waited at the bottom of the ramp trying to encourage them all out.

Edited to add a photo that illustrates the point

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Yup, mum takes care of everything. She protects them, teaches them everything they need to know, warms them as needed, and integrates them. At three weeks the mums abandoned the chicks and they did fine. At one month they were roosting like big girls and the Aunties accepted them as part of the family.

 

[Altairsky]

Day 2 or 3 here.

Last time she refused to come out until I gave her the privacy of a pen around her nest. Problem is she nests nowere near the floor so I had to build an aerial pen. She was satisfied, me not so much.
Now I just kick her out on day 2 in a floor pen, I'll let her stay there for 2 nights, and hope she will stuck to that nest and not bother other girls nest. So I usually start free ranging on day 4 to 5.