Hens and 3 month olds together?

[garlandchickens]

Hey everyone, I am just wondering if I can start to integrate my three month old chicks with my two older hens. I have two littles, and I don’t think my big girls will be nasty to them, as they are sweet tempered chickens. I have combined flocks before but not with younger and older chickens.

Is it too early to combine, or do y’all have any tips?

 

[JaeG]

Are you able to free range them? That gives the littlies lots of space to get away from the older girls, who will ensure they do learn their place but it shouldn't be over the top. I've been putting our young ones in a cage inside the coop at night with separate food and water then they free range during the day. They've been building up their confidence and are pretty well integrated (I just need to cut the apron strings and take away their cage in the coop).

 

[Willow2253]

Make sure there’s lots of hiding places for the littles and plenty of space for everyone. At 3 months old they should be fine with older chickens once they’re integrated. I brood in the coop so I’ve been able to have chicks fully integrated at 6 weeks.

 

[svh]

I just put 10 four WEEK old chicks with my 6 fifteen MONTH old hens, with surprisingly little drama. I followed @aart's recommendations to a tee, and was rewarded with a smooth integration !

Your situation will probably be different with older chicks.

@aart has an article explaining the process here ..... https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/integrating-new-birds-at-4-weeks-old.72603/

There are also a couple of other very helpful articles as well.

 

[aart]

and I don’t think my big girls will be nasty to them, as they are sweet tempered chickens.

You may see another side of your sweet hens....or not.
Where are the youngers living now?

Here's some tips about.....
Integration Basics:
It's all about territory and resources(space/food/water).
Existing birds will almost always attack new ones to defend their resources.
Understanding chicken behaviors is essential to integrating new birds into your flock.

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact.

In adjacent runs, spread scratch grains along the dividing mesh, best if mesh is just big enough for birds to stick their head thru, so they get used to eating together.

The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no copious blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down and beaten unmercilessly, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide 'out of line of sight'(but not a dead end trap) and/or up and away from any bully birds. Roosts, pallets or boards leaned up against walls or up on concrete blocks, old chairs tables, branches, logs, stumps out in the run can really help. Lots of diversion and places to 'hide' instead of bare wide open run.
Good ideas for hiding places:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-cluttered-run.1323792/

 

[garlandchickens]

You may see another side of your sweet hens....or not.
Where are the youngers living now?

Here's some tips about.....
Integration Basics:
It's all about territory and resources(space/food/water).
Existing birds will almost always attack new ones to defend their resources.
Understanding chicken behaviors is essential to integrating new birds into your flock.

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact.

In adjacent runs, spread scratch grains along the dividing mesh, best if mesh is just big enough for birds to stick their head thru, so they get used to eating together.

The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no copious blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down and beaten unmercilessly, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide 'out of line of sight'(but not a dead end trap) and/or up and away from any bully birds. Roosts, pallets or boards leaned up against walls or up on concrete blocks, old chairs tables, branches, logs, stumps out in the run can really help. Lots of diversion and places to 'hide' instead of bare wide open run.
Good ideas for hiding places:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-cluttered-run.1323792/

I have the babies in our hens’ old coop, right next to, but outside of the girls’ pen. They have been looking at each other for several weeks now and the big girls have been very interested in them.
We had a little incident in which the older shot out of the pen and somehow found their way into the babies pen( since it was their old coop, they were used to going in there) and they were all happily asleep when we found them.
Thanks for all the tips!

 

[garlandchickens]

I have the babies in our hens’ old coop, right next to, but outside of the girls’ pen. They have been looking at each other for several weeks now and the big girls have been very interested in them.
We had a little incident in which the older shot out of the pen and somehow found their way into the babies pen( since it was their old coop, they were used to going in there) and they were all happily asleep when we found them.
Thanks for all the tips!

Oops I meant the olders got out of the pen

 

[garlandchickens]

Are you able to free range them? That gives the littlies lots of space to get away from the older girls, who will ensure they do learn their place but it shouldn't be over the top. I've been putting our young ones in a cage inside the coop at night with separate food and water then they free range during the day. They've been building up their confidence and are pretty well integrated (I just need to cut the apron strings and take away their cage in the coop).

I’m not really able to free range of them, though I sometimes let the bigs roam around our backyard. We don’t have a secure fence, and we have to be careful around our pool. I’ve found that, since the babies haven’t started laying, they are hard to catch if they get away from us, and I don’t know if I’d be able to get them back from the yard! I have a 4-6 chicken coop inside an enclosed and covered pen where they are in all day. We are going to put a large crate we have into the pen to let them sleep separate. We did this before with our two older hens. Thanks for the input!