flock integration

[Dixiechick55]

Hello!
Questions for folks who have brought newbies into an existing flock. I have 6 cliquey cinnamon queens who have 'ruled the roost' for 1 year. I am trying to integrate 3 new girls: 2 EE's and a cuckoo maran. They are currently 7 weeks old and have been living in a spacious cardboard box in my bathroom for much of that time. I have just set them up in our basement in a big Tractor Supply trough. They seem happy there, and my family is thrilled to have them out of the bathroom.
I have built a small coop in our existing run just big enough for 3 (shown here). I haven't yet let the cinnamon gang into this space, much to their dismay, though they already have a luxury coop located at the far end of our covered run. My plan was to let the babies hang out in their new coop a bit every day with the door closed so all the girls got used to seeing one another. When I attempted this yesterday the cinnamons acted like this was the WORST thing that had ever happened to them and spent the morning circling the new girls like sharks and pecking through the chicken wire.
Soooo - what to do. I plan to wait til the hens are more similar in size (maybe 10 weeks) before I let them have supervised physical contact, however the waiting game is tough and I feel like the newbies quality of life is really lacking right now. 2 Questions:
1) Is it OK to keep 3 chickens in a (large) brooder in your basement for 10 - 12 weeks?? This feels cruel.
2) advice on flock merging would be helpful, as well as recs on what first aid I should have on hand for when they meet face to face.
Thanks everyone!!!

 

[Sally PB]

Can you give us a little more information? What is your location/climate? Night time temps? Do the littles have heat/need heat in their new spot?

If you have done this for just one day, maybe the reaction wasn't out of the ordinary. If the littles can stay in their new place, maybe you can give the situation time to work itself out.

 

[Dixiechick55]

Can you give us a little more information? What is your location/climate? Night time temps? Do the littles have heat/need heat in their new spot?

If you have done this for just one day, maybe the reaction wasn't out of the ordinary. If the littles can stay in their new place, maybe you can give the situation time to work itself out.

Hi and thanks for your response! Currently the 7 week olds have a heat lamp in the basement. It's chilly/drafty there year round, and the thermometer in the brooder reads 75 even with the lamp. I am in Atlanta GA. I think they would be ok to be fully outdoors soon as it will be 90 degrees here on Sunday with night time temps in upper 60's/low 70's pretty consistently after that.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

If your littles are 7 weeks old they shouldn't need any heat. I'd move them to their little coop to live permanently(until the integration is complete), the more they see each other the better. I just integrated 3 littles and it was easy breezy with the right techniques given to me by some of these great folks!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/change-of-plans.1454019/

 

[Auntiejessi3]

One of my ladies was a hot mess when she saw the littles, down right neurotic but it passed after a few days

 

[rosemarythyme]

The chicks should be completely off heat, 75F is really warm and your birds already have feathered coats to regulate their temperature.

Issue with integrating right now is you're in that in between stage where the chicks can't be integrated via panic doors, but aren't yet big enough to stand up to the adults. The hens are behaving normally - they see intruders, they want to check things out. You need to let this happen, that's why the fence is there to keep the chicks safe. The adults will eventually satisfy their curiosity and lose most of their interest in the younger birds, and then you can move forward.