Hens and Chicks: When is it safe?

[Eldergoddess]

I have 4 chicks about 5 weeks old. And lets face it they are growing like weeds and will soon out grow the brooder. I have 14 hens (yay for chicken math) that are all over a year old. I hope to get the run put up this next week (been saying that for a year now) but I know it really has to happen now with these new chicks. My main questions are this...

When can I let them out of the brooder box?

When can I mix them in with the rest of the flock?

How do I mix them in with the rest of the flock?

I have brooded them in the coop, so the hens know them. Well know them as well as they can with wire in between them. So I hope the mixing of the flock will go OK. But I don't have the space to make them a different home away from the rest of the flock for the next 5 months.

 

[Julia62]

I have a similar situation. I have 3 chicks that are 6 weeks old and 3 hens that are 1 year old. The chicks have been outside during the days in a play pen for a couple weeks now and now in a separate coop/run just for day time. The hens are interested for a bit, but then wander away. I will wait until they are 8 weeks old and then let them out supervised so I can come to the rescue if needed.

I remember when we got Ginger. She came into our other 4 (1 is now deceased) after having them two weeks. She got picked on a little bit, mostly by our Leghorn, but not bad and now they are all buddies.

 

[CockadoodleMimi]

I have 2 older hens around 2 yrs old and I raised 10 baby's that are now about 7-8 wks old. I had them in a smaller coop inside the run so the older hens would get used to them being around. They cackled when they went near the baby's but nothing alarming. So I moved the little coop out into the yard so the baby's could eat some grass and my older hens that free range cackled like they were not happy about that. Finally they acted like the baby's weren't even there, so I let the baby's out in the run with the older hens to see how they'd react and the older hens went after the chicks stalking them and attacking them. They jumped on them and pecked hard enough to pull feathers out of the chicks.

At what age is it safe to merge them together? I have put the older hens in the little temp coop since they free range and moved the younger ones into the actual perm coop. Since there are so many of them and they're too big for the little temp coop now. Now the older hens pace around the outside of the run fence pecking at whichever chick comes close to it.

Not sure what to do. Any advice is appreciated!

 

[Rowsdower]

There WILL be some pecking. You just have to take off the momma hen glasses. Don't let them do serious damage, of course. Keep an eye on things and give the chicks plenty of hiding places. But after a few minutes the older hens will get tired of pecking, the little ones will learn to stay out of the way, and things will settle down. I got to see momma hen syndrome in action a few weekends ago. I've been keeping some chicks for my sister until she gets her run built. She stopped by and I had just introduced her birds to my older birds. One of my hens gave one of the little ones a little "hey, I get to eat first" peck and my sister nearly scaled the run to rescue it. To me, the hen hadn't really done anything wrong, but to her it was an all out assault. I calmed her down and told her to leave it. The little chick turned around and pecked the hen right under her eye (wrong move) and the hen let him have it, grabbing onto the back of his neck and just holding him in place for a couple of seconds. I thought my sister was going to die. She's screaming at the top of her lungs like some sort of crazy cartoon. I explained to her that the pecking HAS to happen or they will never be accepted into the flock and she decided that she'd better go home. lol By that evening all was well and the little ones were sleeping with the adults on the roost.

 

[Eldergoddess]

I don't know...my little girls are still pretty little compared to the big hens. My biggest problem is that I have no run. Maybe I will keep them apart till I get my run built. That way they have room to run and hide. Right now there isn't much room with 15 hens (adopted a new hen today) and all their nesting boxes and feed bin in the coop with out a run. They are 5 weeks old today and look like little monster birds. One I swear is a eaglet and not a chick.

I know they have to be pecked, I only break up fights when they start getting to jumping at each other for more than a few hops. I just don't want my hens pecking my chicks bloody.