Finally roosting!

[Henrybelle]

After almost two weeks of careful integration I’ve finally and successfully added my chicks to the rest of my flock.

About two weeks ago I moved my 5 week olds to the coop with the rest of my flock, separating a portion with hardware cloth. And during the day they were penned outside

after a few days of getting to know each other through fencing I would take one of my big girls into the chicks pen for supervised close ups. This went well except for two of the biggins’ were a little aggressive. So I began to think maybe it should be the other way around, and I let the littles out of their pen for supervised visits. Much better, the openness was they all needed to feel each other out. While a couple of the big gals are still a bit aggressive no one ever gets hurt really, the babies are too fast.

I added multiple feeding stations so they wouldn’t starve from being chased away from the food. And a few days ago I took the separation down in the coop because a few of the chicks were trying to roost with the biggins’. They are now 8/9 weeks old and all are roosting. they have totally adapted to the coop life and also had their first rainy day today and stayed surprisingly dry unlike the biggies. Lol I’m so proud them! here are some pics of the road there. Enjoy! The last pic is a bit grainy since it was raining today

 

[birdsrfun]

Great job!

 

[lizo97]

Henrybelle, I am in the same situation, but mine are still separated by a fence. Do you think it is important that they have a separate lower roost?? Do you think the Bigs would be angry if the Littles had a roost the same height?

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

Well done!
Enjoy your beautiful flock!!

 

[birdsrfun]

Henrybelle, I am in the same situation, but mine are still separated by a fence. Do you think it is important that they have a separate lower roost?? Do you think the Bigs would be angry if the Littles had a roost the same height?

Yes and yes. The pecking order rules, especially when it comes to the best roosting spots. Your flock should have several roosting bars, at various height. The birds will work things out and they’ll roost according to their order.

Are you asking about the same roosting height with them separated, or when you put them all together?

 

[Henrybelle]

Henrybelle, I am in the same situation, but mine are still separated by a fence. Do you think it is important that they have a separate lower roost?? Do you think the Bigs would be angry if the Littles had a roost the same height?

Are they roaming outdoors together yet or do you have them separated outside too? I have several roost bars at various heights, for the first week or all the newbies roosted together on the same bar after that they all a few found other spots among the bigs and they seem to be doing just fine.