Getting pullets into main coop

[geepers6]

I have 6, 19 week old pullets. They sleep in an eglu at night. Quite jam packed. I have 2, 6 year old hens in the main coop. I've tried locking the pullets into the run with the main coop at night but they wander around distraught. I can't just lock the young girls in the coop for a few days because the bigger girls lay eggs in there.
Any ideas on how to get the two groups to merge.
They range together all day without incident. Can I lock them all, old and young in the main coop for a few days without traumatizing the older girls? So far they co-exist fairly peacefully.
Thank you.

 

[aart]

Can I lock them all, old and young in the main coop for a few days without traumatizing the older girls?

Ehh....might depend on how big the coop is and how hot it is where you live.
Also, they might get along out ranging but could be a different story when you confine them that closely.

I've tried locking the pullets into the run with the main coop at night but they wander around distraught.

You could just put the pullets on the roosts after dark, after a few nights they should get with the program. Do you have a separate roost for the youngers? That might help a lot.

They won't actually 'merge' until the youngers start laying.

 

[flyin-lowe]

I just did something similar. I had a loss a couple months ago due to a predator attack leaving me with only 4 hens of my original 10. I went a couple weeks ago and purchased 12 more pullets to bring my flock back up. They were all hatched earlier this summer. I kept then quarantined for a couple weeks and then let them free range some together just to be around each other a few evenings. The temp coop the new flock was in was not the most weather proof so this past Friday morning I decided to move them in together as we were foretasted to get a bunch of rain due to remnants of a tropical storm. Friday morning I removed my original flock from the coop and let them free range while I moved all the new hens in. I kept it shut up for an hour or so so the old hens could see the new ones in the run and then I let the old ones back in. There was very little pecking/fighting at all. They spent all day interacting nicely. I expected some chaos come roosting time that night but all was well when I went out as it was getting dark. I think (not sure) that since the new flock was had so many more hens then the old one the old flock didn't try to pick on or dominate the new birds since they were out numbered. I could be wrong about that though..... The majority of my new flock was buff orpingtons and barred rocks and a RIR. The existing flock was 2 barred rocks and 2 amberlinks. Since those are some more laid back breeds that might have helped me as well.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Questions that immediately comes to mind is how big is your main coop and how are the roosts laid out. That will determine how much the younger ones are traumatized. The older ones will be OK.

The way I go about that is to toss the pullets in the main coop after dark and lock them in there. I don't worry about putting them on the roosts, I just put them on the coop floor. They can work out where they sleep without my further input. They will manage that anyway. I lock the old coop up so they can't go back in there. Sometimes I only have to do that once and they make the switch on their own, sometimes I have to collect them at dark and put them in the main coop for several days. Mine try to sleep in the immediate vicinity of their old coop until they make that switch. Each morning I'm down there at the crack of dawn to open the pop door so they can get away from the adults if they need to. Usually just once or twice is all I do that before I'm convinced they will be OK if I sleep in a bit. How big your main coop is and how it is laid out inside can have a big influence on that.

Mine usually don't sleep on the main roosts with the adults until they mature more, usually about the time they start laying. There are exceptions but generally they look for a safe place to sleep where the older ones don't beat them up. That can be anywhere in your coop, on the floor, on something in there, or on or in your nests. You won't know where until they show you. I do this a few times a year. Sometimes it was in the nests but usually it wasn't. It was more likely on top of my nests or in a certain corner of the coop floor. But it was my nests often enough that I put a juvenile roost lower than my main roosts, separated horizontally by a few feet, and higher than my nests. That pretty much solved that problem.

If your coop is so small they can't get somewhere they feel safe from the older hens they may be hard to train to go in that coop at night. If the coop is big enough and laid out in a way they can get to a safe place it should be pretty easy.

If your coop is big enough that you can build a pen bigger than that Eglu you can lock them in there for a few days and nights. That should do the trick. After three or four days just let them out and see what they do at night.

Good luck, always different ways to approach it.

 

[Pork Pie]

I let my pullets decide when to roost with the adult flock. I find that over a period a month or so of the first pullet roosting with the adults, the others follow suit (in a trickle, rather than en-masse).

 

[geepers6]

Ehh....might depend on how big the coop is and how hot it is where you live.
Also, they might get along out ranging but could be a different story when you confine them that closely.


You could just put the pullets on the roosts after dark, after a few nights they should get with the program. Do you have a separate roost for the youngers? That might help a lot.

They won't actually 'merge' until the youngers start laying.

Were in upstate New York it's cooling off a bit. The eglu is much warmer. The coop is 10' by 4'.

 

[geepers6]

I let my pullets decide when to roost with the adult flock. I find that over a period a month or so of the first pullet roosting with the adults, the others follow suit (in a trickle, rather than en-masse).

Should I prevent the pullets access to their eglu?

 

[Pork Pie]

Should I prevent the pullets access to their eglu?

I wouldn’t - I’d just let them decide when it’s time to mix it with the adults. That’s just my approach - it’s fine to do what you think works best for you. It may be fine, providing you have seen the pullets hanging out in the main coop (during the day) already.

 

[aart]

I wouldn’t - I’d just let them decide when it’s time to mix it with the adults.

Course you don't have an impending harsh winter on the horizon

Were in upstate New York it's cooling off a bit. The eglu is much warmer. The coop is 10' by 4'.

It's more about territory and feeling 'safe' than temperature, the pullets prefer what they are used to and the older birds might not want these 'strangers' in their coop space.

One thing you could try is to isolate the 2 older birds in the eglu coop and run, and put the pullets in the larger coop and run so they can investigate and get comfortable without being harassed/intimidated by the older birds.

There's lots of ways to integrate, from very hands off to very hands on, up to you to try what you want. I'd want those pullets familiar with the main coop and nests before they start laying,so would be more hands on.

 

[Pork Pie]

Course you don't have an impending harsh winter on the horizon
.

I most certainly do not