Has anyone ever just "thrown them in" when integrating new birds into a flock?

[Cryss]

Question, what do you about feed? Don’t the younger birds eat a different feed than the adults? Just wondering...Thanks!

Young birds that aren't of laying age, approximately 20 weeks old, should not be given layer feed. They instinctively won't eat oyster shell offered in a separate dish. Feed a mixed age flock the start and grow type feed, any feed acceptable for young pullets. Offer a separate full bowl or feeder of oyster shell. I never bother going on to feed layer. I think most BYCer's do the same. As long as there is oyster shell you never have to feed layer blends, so you never have to worry about who eats what.

 

[crazychick26201]

I wonder if anyone has advice about integrating a young rooster. My 4 babies are just 5 weeks old and I am pretty sure one is a roo. They are Buffs. My 4 old girls are all six years old. I tried this three years ago and my lead hen and the young roo kept fighting so I had to rehome him. I would like to keep this one though. I have a lot of space-a large run and 2 large fenced paddocks and can make more.

 

[TheRealWitwiki]

I would say if you have no problems to just keep monitoring them sounds like you're doing great! I think when you introduce more than one bird it takes the pressure off of everyone that's new equally. I only had one chick survive out of 7 or 8 eggs this year and I introduced her very slow. I built a cage that went into to main pen and put her in there several days in a row. Then when it was time to let her in with everyone else I watched for about an hour before I left. She was picked on and still stays to herself, but she's only 14 weeks old. My other chickens are a year old and all grew up together so they are kinda like a clique. When I reintroduced the mother hen back to the flock it took several weeks for the other hens to leave her alone.

 

[aart]

Oftentimes I give up on "search" here and just go to google or yahoo- they find the BYC threads I'm looking for much more efficiently (unfortunately). It seems like since the transition, the search function just isn't as good.

Yep, what I suggested .
The search here wasn't great before the transition, and yes, worse afterwards.

Question, what do you about feed? Don’t the younger birds eat a different feed than the adults? Just wondering...Thanks!

I feed all my birds 20% flock raiser, always have, with some daily scratch grains and oyster shell in a separate container for the active layers. Makes things simpler for sure.

I wonder if anyone has advice about integrating a young rooster. My 4 babies are just 5 weeks old and I am pretty sure one is a roo. They are Buffs. My 4 old girls are all six years old. I tried this three years ago and my lead hen and the young roo kept fighting so I had to rehome him. I would like to keep this one though. I have a lot of space-a large run and 2 large fenced paddocks and can make more.

Integrate all chicks with the flock, the male may cause problems when he reaches sexual maturity, but the older hens should teach him some respect. Lots of space is the key to keeping pecking orders from causing catastrophic issues.

 

[schradersl]

Here me out. I have 5 grown hens, and four 5-7 week old chicks that are currently outside. I have PLENTY of space, the run is 18/24 feet. When I took the chickies outside I thought that before I put them in their cage in the run I should just plop them down with the other birds and observe carefully to see what happens.

It went really well, there was of course quite a bit of pecking in the beginning but the hens only ever pecked the chicks if they were in their way or trying to eat some of their food, and there was no blood, just some pulled feathers when the rooster chick challenged the top hen (it didn't go well). Other than that, they leave each other alone. I put out 2 new feeders and waterers so everyone gets fed, plus lots of treats to occupy the big ones. I ended up leaving them like that all day long yesterday, but I was going out every 20 minutes to check on them.

When it was time to go to bed the hens went into the coop and the chicks followed them and they let them stay there! Granted they slept on the floor and there was a lot of squawking from the big hens (but no biting), but still. I shut them in together but woke up half an hour before sunrise and opened the coop so it would not be light out and the chicks would be trapped. It went well they all made it through the night.

I am still watching them VERY carefully. And I know we all hear the horror stories of hens scalping chicks or eating them like hyenas, but this seems to be going very well. Is it likely at some point the hens will just "snap" and kill them? And is this normal or is my flock special? I have an uncle who integrates chickens the same way (but with adult hens), and it's the same thing. They get a good peck if they come too close but otherwise they're left alone.

Let me know what you think and please your experiences. Please be kind.

Sounds like it worked out well. 1) I've tried a couple of techniques that both worked. If you have a minority of elder hens, I separate and add one at a time to the larger new flock. The majority prevents all out mayhem, but the hen will eventually go to the top of the pecking order with less hassle. Then I add the second, and the completion becomes between the 2 elder hens. Technique 2 is put the elder ones in a smaller cage with the younger ones on the outside of the cage. Feed the youth in front of the elder ones. Let the younger ones jump on the cage, poop a on them etc. Call it the POW method. 3) The final is more conventional where you just let them mingle in the yard for a few days and they end up being friends until they agree on coop perch position. Its always a fun thing to watch. I think having space is key to integration. Buffers help dampen the fighting - although they always will. Also breed seems to influence it too.

 

[schradersl]

I would say if you have no problems to just keep monitoring them sounds like you're doing great! I think when you introduce more than one bird it takes the pressure off of everyone that's new equally. I only had one chick survive out of 7 or 8 eggs this year and I introduced her very slow. I built a cage that went into to main pen and put her in there several days in a row. Then when it was time to let her in with everyone else I watched for about an hour before I left. She was picked on and still stays to herself, but she's only 14 weeks old. My other chickens are a year old and all grew up together so they are kinda like a clique. When I reintroduced the mother hen back to the flock it took several weeks for the other hens to leave her alone.

I was always interested to know what happens when you have your chickens actually hatch their eggs - is it typically a high mortality or do the mother hens protect the young? Do you have to constantly watch them?

 

[henhubble]

Here me out. I have 5 grown hens, and four 5-7 week old chicks that are currently outside. I have PLENTY of space, the run is 18/24 feet. When I took the chickies outside I thought that before I put them in their cage in the run I should just plop them down with the other birds and observe carefully to see what happens.

It went really well, there was of course quite a bit of pecking in the beginning but the hens only ever pecked the chicks if they were in their way or trying to eat some of their food, and there was no blood, just some pulled feathers when the rooster chick challenged the top hen (it didn't go well). Other than that, they leave each other alone. I put out 2 new feeders and waterers so everyone gets fed, plus lots of treats to occupy the big ones. I ended up leaving them like that all day long yesterday, but I was going out every 20 minutes to check on them.

When it was time to go to bed the hens went into the coop and the chicks followed them and they let them stay there! Granted they slept on the floor and there was a lot of squawking from the big hens (but no biting), but still. I shut them in together but woke up half an hour before sunrise and opened the coop so it would not be light out and the chicks would be trapped. It went well they all made it through the night.

I am still watching them VERY carefully. And I know we all hear the horror stories of hens scalping chicks or eating them like hyenas, but this seems to be going very well. Is it likely at some point the hens will just "snap" and kill them? And is this normal or is my flock special? I have an uncle who integrates chickens the same way (but with adult hens), and it's the same thing. They get a good peck if they come too close but otherwise they're left alone.

Let me know what you think and please your experiences. Please be kind.

I think if you have lots of space and space for the feeders, things should go fine. There will be pecking, but I have seldom seen a serious attack as long as there is space. They will sort it out.

 

[schradersl]

I think if you have lots of space and space for the feeders, things should go fine. There will be pecking, but I have seldom seen a serious attack as long as there is space. They will sort it out.

I think available perch space is also important to them. Seems if there's "excess" linear perch space there's less to fight about. I added more linear feet of perch in my latest coop so will test the theory with our new flock.

 

[Judy Todd]

Here me out. I have 5 grown hens, and four 5-7 week old chicks that are currently outside. I have PLENTY of space, the run is 18/24 feet. When I took the chickies outside I thought that before I put them in their cage in the run I should just plop them down with the other birds and observe carefully to see what happens.

It went really well, there was of course quite a bit of pecking in the beginning but the hens only ever pecked the chicks if they were in their way or trying to eat some of their food, and there was no blood, just some pulled feathers when the rooster chick challenged the top hen (it didn't go well). Other than that, they leave each other alone. I put out 2 new feeders and waterers so everyone gets fed, plus lots of treats to occupy the big ones. I ended up leaving them like that all day long yesterday, but I was going out every 20 minutes to check on them.

When it was time to go to bed the hens went into the coop and the chicks followed them and they let them stay there! Granted they slept on the floor and there was a lot of squawking from the big hens (but no biting), but still. I shut them in together but woke up half an hour before sunrise and opened the coop so it would not be light out and the chicks would be trapped. It went well they all made it through the night.

I am still watching them VERY carefully. And I know we all hear the horror stories of hens scalping chicks or eating them like hyenas, but this seems to be going very well. Is it likely at some point the hens will just "snap" and kill them? And is this normal or is my flock special? I have an uncle who integrates chickens the same way (but with adult hens), and it's the same thing. They get a good peck if they come too close but otherwise they're left alone.

Let me know what you think and please your experiences. Please be k

 

[Judy Todd]

Here me out. I have 5 grown hens, and four 5-7 week old chicks that are currently outside. I have PLENTY of space, the run is 18/24 feet. When I took the chickies outside I thought that before I put them in their cage in the run I should just plop them down with the other birds and observe carefully to see what happens.

It went really well, there was of course quite a bit of pecking in the beginning but the hens only ever pecked the chicks if they were in their way or trying to eat some of their food, and there was no blood, just some pulled feathers when the rooster chick challenged the top hen (it didn't go well). Other than that, they leave each other alone. I put out 2 new feeders and waterers so everyone gets fed, plus lots of treats to occupy the big ones. I ended up leaving them like that all day long yesterday, but I was going out every 20 minutes to check on them.

When it was time to go to bed the hens went into the coop and the chicks followed them and they let them stay there! Granted they slept on the floor and there was a lot of squawking from the big hens (but no biting), but still. I shut them in together but woke up half an hour before sunrise and opened the coop so it would not be light out and the chicks would be trapped. It went well they all made it through the night.

I am still watching them VERY carefully. And I know we all hear the horror stories of hens scalping chicks or eating them like hyenas, but this seems to be going very well. Is it likely at some point the hens will just "snap" and kill them? And is this normal or is my flock special? I have an uncle who integrates chickens the same way (but with adult hens), and it's the same thing. They get a good peck if they come too close but otherwise they're left alone.

Let me know what you think and please your experiences. Please be kind.

Good to know what all of you have done. I keep my new chicks in a separate pen until 9 weeks or more. The reason for that is I want them to eat chick start for as long as possible. No way would the older gals leave that alone. They think it is much tastier then their layer food. I have read that young chicks should not eat layer until 18 week because of the high protein amount. Like you all, I want my new chicks out free ranging as soon as possible. I always think of what the farmers did , the chicks were born somewhere in the barn and went out foraging as soon as mom thought it was Ok.