Four week olds, 14 week olds and a new coop.

[Farmin Armen]

Hey all - Farmin Armen here!

I’m helping my neighbor build a new coop and run. Long story, but a predator got into the coop one night and feasted on or ravaged 12 hens. I went to the local feed store and got him four RIR when they were 4-6 week old pullets. Now they’re about 13-15 weeks. We are almost done with the new coop and run. It’s large enough to hold twenty hens comfortably.

The idea is to go purchase 16 3-4 week old chicks, grab the 4 that I bought and introduce them all into the new coop sometime at dusk. I’ve done this before, but the concern is with the 16 chicks.

1. Will the chicks be ok without a brooder (lows are 45 and highs are 70s right now)?
2. The four OG hens wont peck to death the other chicks, right?

 

[rosemarythyme]

1. Depends on the conditions they were kept in. If they've been completely weaned off heat and regularly exposed to temperatures similar to your temperatures outside, they should be fine without heat. Bigger issue is...

2. The age and size difference is too great to expect the older birds to not pick on the younger ones at the start. Teen birds can be harder to predict as far as their reactions, vs older established hens. Best to have some sort of wire mesh completely separating the two sides at the start for at least a week before the younger birds start mingling with the older ones with some supervision and lots of clutter in the run for hiding places.

 

[Farmin Armen]

#1 makes sense.

#2 I was thinking safety in numbers as the four older ones would be outnumbered by the 16 smaller ones.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Safety in numbers helps, but it's not really a form of protection unless you're talking about something like 50% survival rate is acceptable. Personally, I'd rather not risk it and would spend the extra week acclimating both sides to each other first.

A lot of clutter with some chick sized openings would be more helpful than relying on numerical advantage, so the chicks can physically shelter from being attacked. For reference, a typical brick is about the size of an opening that standard chicks up to around 6-8 weeks or so can fit through, that older, standard sized birds cannot.

General clutter examples: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-cluttered-run.1323792/

Some discussion about chick safe zones: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/ideas-for-safe-zone-box-for-chicks.1508599