Help me join my two groups of chickens!!

[Marc33]

Hi there everyone! I could use some advice. We've got a flock of about 43 chickens - 31 hends and 12 red star males that will be processed for meat in a few weeks. All of these chickens are about 10 weeks old. We also have a group of 6 polish (2 male, 4 female) that are about 8 weeks old and I cannot get the big flock to accept the polish! I have had the polish in a chicken tractor inside my main chicken yard for about 2 weeks now. Any time I try remove them from the chicken tractor they are PECKED LIKE CRAZY. Does anyone have any advice for me? I'm thinking the polish were a bad impulse buy! They like the chicken tractor but it's not a long term solution.

Thanks again for any help! I just love this message board!

 

[kcfuerst]

Process all but one male at 10 weeks. Problem solved.

 

[bigzio]

Marc33, It works real well to allow the younger birds to free range with the rest of the flock so they can run and get away from older birds while becoming familiar to them. If you don't free range it is best to keep them close enough for the others to see them without contact.

20 week old chicks are the normal age for placing together, so everyone is close to the same size. Hope this helps.

bigzio

 

[ella]

I agree with bigzio.

Also, with polish chickens it's a good idea to trim the crest feathers so they can see better, this is especially helpful when they are getting introduced. Otherwise they may miss the social cues that tell them when to submit and get out of the way.

 

[Marc33]

Thanks for all the advice. We hadn't thought of trimming the feathers, that may help a lot. I think we'll keep the polish in the tractor for a while, at least until processing the meat birds.