How big should the chicks be to go in the coop with rooster?

[GooseyMcGee]

I have a set of chicks that are 8 weeks old. They currently live in a small pen away from the big chicken coop. We have a 5 hens and a big rooster in the coop so I'm little worried they will get picked on. How old should they be before I do this?

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

As close in size to the older hens as possible. 18 - 19 weeks if you can manage it, so that they are on the point of lay. Much younger, and they can get pecked to death. Also, they need different feed until 18 weeks, anyway, so it's easier to keep them separated.

If they are close to being mature, the rooster will accept them much more readily, too.

 

[plm6846]

We tried to introduce our two older chickens to the little flock of 7, which we have one Roo (is that how you spell this?). It so didn't work! He was rather brutal to the hens, the Easter egger faired ok, but had a big bloody area where he pecked out a tail feather, besides she was used to running away due to some Whdonnettes we had that were seriously aggressive and they were always after her. The Wydonnette we did keep, our Roo was pretty ruthless with her. We had these hens free ranging at the same time, but they never really mingled, but did get close. Our little flock wasn't quite 18 weeks and the older hens were 4 months older....so watch it when intruducing those chicks..could get ugly. We have them in separage cages for night time, we allow supervised free ranging during the day...hawks ya know.

 

[centrarchid]

Starting with an adult (fully adult like more than 8 months old) rooster, I can put 5 week old chicks with without problems. Hens complicate matters and are often more likely to younger birds. Larger juveniles of both sexes will be hard on chicks.

If I were in your situation, then I would remove hens placing them in another location while young birds would be placed in with rooster. Watch carefully to make certain rooster does in fact play well with chicks. A little pecking is OK at first. He should quickly shift into mind set where he points out eats to chicks. Additionally I would isolate rooster from hens for a couple of days so he would be more eager to take in new flock members. If all works well rooster will speed younger birds interest in roosting up off ground by calling them up.


I have done this several times and roosters in cockyard will occasionally adopt chicks when no hen roosts with them.

 

[GooseyMcGee]

Okay than, I have three younger chicks (three weeks old). Can they go in the pen with the 8 weeks old? OOORRRR should I put the new hatchlings in the three weekers?

 

[centrarchid]

Reads like you have a jumble of age groups. You can mix but best to put older birds on top of younger, not younger on top of older as you indicate. I would do so at lights out and then watch them when lights come on in morning. The night time of hearing each other in close proximity will enable some bonding. The hatchlings I would avoid mixing with other groups especially is others have been outside. Mixing increases odds of disease and in a brooder that can be disastrous.


If you are just starting out with chickens, I would endeavor to avoid mixing age groups until you have a handle on normal behavior. You also need to make sure you have enough pens of proper size as needed to keep birds you have. Forced mixing can be very hard if not fatal in smaller birds.