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Paula Ashley

Paula Ashley

Chirping
9 Years
Jul 24, 2014
50
9
91
Arkansas
My name is Paula and I have been waiting for our move to a new house with some acreage to begin with chickens. But... My husband presented me with 2 Barnevelders and a Welsummer that were hatched on 3/31 this past Mother's Day. So we have begun earlier than expected.

I am loving it. These youngsters have been amazing. So amazing that I have 4 additions.. 2 leg bars, a maran and a silver campine. The first 3 have moved into a wonderful coop that my husband helped me finish a couple of weeks ago. They free range during the day in my large back yard.

The 4 younger 'kids' spend their time in the 'chicken run'. 4' by 12' they come out to explore the yard with supervision and when the big girls are in their coop.

I'm just a little concerned when I move them in together. They have been around each other for several weeks. In a couple more weeks the big move.

I have learned so much information from this wonderful website and all the wonderful members that share so much!

Thank you all!
 
Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! Congratulations on your new flock, sounds like you have put together a nice variety. It is usually recommended to wait until the youngest birds are about the same size as the older ones before integrating them, and then to do it slowly letting them get to know each other through wire for a month or so, ie divide the coop in half or have the younger ones in a cage in the coop etc so they can sort of sort out their pecking order without physical contact. If you can let them free range together with supervision before actually combining them that seems to help cut down on the drama also. There is a good article in the Learning Center on combining flocks https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock
 
Thank you for your advice. And the article is wonderful and informative. I am definitely going to divide free range time between my two groups. And I am going to wait until the littles are closer to the same size as the bigger girls. They have been checking each other out thru the hardware cloth for a week and before that i brought the young ones out for yard time in a dog crate.

No rushing here.

Thanks so much....
 
Hello there and welcome to BYC!
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I just mixed in some 12 week olds into my adult flock of Black Australorps. I had kept the chicks in the run in their own enclosure since they were 5 weeks old. The chicks had their own cage with roost bar in the coop as well. So for 7 weeks, everybody hung out together. Pretty scary mixing them in that day, LOL, but after a day or two, the chicks understood
the pecking order and pretty much know when to run and when they can stay put with the adults. It goes fairly smooth if you keep the newbies with the adult flock for a good period of time as I did. And make sure to have several water and feed stations out as the chicks can easily be run off from just one.

Good luck and welcome to our flock!
 
Welcome to BYC! Please make yourself at home and we are here to help.

Like Two Crows, I also just recently mixed two groups of chickens. They were separated for about a month and then they mixed. It went very well. The key is time and hideaways.
 
Thank you. The youngest of my little ones is 8 weeks old. I will not mix them until the end of August. Until then we will swap yard time. I really appreciate the suggestions. I love my chickens...
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Welcome to BYC, Paula! Glad you decided to join our flock. My wife and I were both raised in NE Texas. Raising chickens is a great experience for children. Good luck with your flock.
 
Definitely familiar with Greenville. We live in Lucas It's much closer to Dallas. We drive thru Greenville at least once a month on the way to little rock.
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