How can I combine this flock successfully?

[Rainbow Advaya]

I bought 8 chicks (pullets) that arrived on March 16. One died so I have seven of them now. They were probably two days old at the time. They are now living in a large dog crate while we finish up our coop.

I also have a brood box of 6 chicks from tractor supply that I bought on April 12th. They are feathering out well by now so I'm not sure how old they were when I got them. Older than the ones I ordered in the mail, but still probably only a few days old.

The coop will be done hopefully by next weekend. It's a 7x8 coop, but the chickens will be free ranging when supervised and in a very large run when I'm not able to watch. I hope this is sufficient room.

In case this matters, the chicks are:

MPC chicks (hopefully all pullets... they're supposed to be

!)
3 Barred Rocks
3 White Leghorns
1 Rhode Island Red

TSC:
2 Red Sex Link pullets
1 assorted pullet (looks like it might be a leghorn)
1 old english game bantam (rooster)
2 bantam cochins (unsure of sex)

I've heard that it's best to do this at night, but since this is unfamiliar ground to both do you think it'd be okay to introduce them in the day? The run won't be done immediately, so I am going to have keep them cooped up a few nights, otherwise I would introduce them in the run.

Are the bantams especially at major risk? Is the fact that the one rooster I know I have is a bantam going to be an issue? How would you introduce these two "flocks"?

I did try putting them into a separate rubber-made to see what happened, and other than some minor pecking (mostly amongst the birds who already knew each other), they didn't seem to notice anything new.

 

[jennh]

I have introduced flocks 4 times now. What I did was keep the old chickens separated from the young ones by a fence so they can see each other, and get used to each other. When the chicks were old enough to go in the coop, I just put them in one night. No problems other than the young chicks kept wanting to go back to their old "home". After awhile they got used to their new "home" and went in on their own.

Jen

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

I had a baby chick hatch 2 days ago and I moved him with my other 20 + chicks. They don't hurt him. I've got about 4 four week old chicks, and some 2 or 3 weeks old. They're doing just fine.

 

[cobrien]

I did what jennh did, for at least a week. I put their feeders right near the fence that separates them so they get used to eating near each other. The partition does not necessarily need to be robust or fancy - you can temporarily tack on some chicken wire in a corner of the run and give them a little dog house or something. In my limited experience younger chicks are easier to integrate with other young chicks, but as they get older there is more territorial behavior, especially around feeders, waterers, and roosts - so the more of these you offer them (and as much space as possible of course), the better. Many swear by introducing them at night, if you do this I'd be there first thing in the morning because there may be fighting. I haven't tried this, I did the separate but visible thing for one week, then I let them free range together, supervised, for several hours at the end of the day so I could observe, and then when I felt comfortable I integrated them, and put extra feeders out so that the ones lower in the hierarchy aren't chased away from a single feeder/waterer. In one case I had one bully hen who kept terrorizing a few others, so I put her in isolation / chicken jail for a week and when I re-introduced her everything was fine.

Sounds like you have a lot of space - free ranging them together as much as possible before they are confined has seemed to help mine, even though I only have a small city yard for them. It's best to do this when they are all about the same size.

Good luck!

 

[Noncentzter]

With a 7x8 coop, you can have 14 birds...so you're fine there.

Integration. I have the same concern. I have 10 eight week olds that have been together for about one month now. I have two eight week olds that I want to put with them when I move all 12 into the coop which should be finished this weekend. Not sure how I'm going to do it. I'm thinking all at once since the coop will be new to all of them...

 

[Rainbow Advaya]

Sorry for the delay in responding, but thank you all for your advice! I can't wait for this coop to get finished and these guys out of my kitchen

 

[jennh]

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