How do I introduce a chick to the flock that I hand raised alone?

[Cynthia12]

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...she is gonna get beat up---my wild { dumb } suggestion,,,

,,,,build a smaller coop and run just for her and 1 other baby chik---i did that with a hen i had that was being constantly picked on , she an her sister are now really content:cd

I do the same as geezer does...I have a nursery hutch as I call it, where all the chickens..chicks can see each other. Just lately, I made one of my poor younger birds go in with my little one. Now the little one thinks the bigger one is mama. Goes everywhere she goes, and stays right with her. She is out with the others now, still hangs with the two month old pullet like she is mama. Cute. The others did peck at her when I first introduced her, but not any real attacking. I just let her in with the others for a bit of time, then back to the hutch. Did this for a few days as I watched, then when they were fine with her, let her stay in the coop during the day, then still put her back into the hutch, until, last night! She jumped right up onto a roost in the coop and made herself right at home. I was happy to see that, won't have to catch her every evening, then was thinking I would have to introduce her into the coop at night myself. She did it all by her self.

 

[weesy68]

Thanks all for your advice. I tried to put her in with the calmest silkie that immediately attacked her. My next question is, I have another chick that one of the silkies is raising, he/she is one week older than my singleton, so he's seven weeks on Saturday. Can I separate him from his mother at this point and put him in with the single chick I've been raising? Will he pine terribly for his mother? I don't want to stress the mother out unnecessarily either, so I'd have to put them in a totally separate area for a while.

 

[henney penny]

You could try it,your singleton probably will be afraid of the other one but give them time to adjust to one another,I found at about six or seven weeks the mothers of chicks tend to push them out anyways.

 

[henney penny]

Jadee finally made it into the flock,she has been in there for a few days now and everything is fine,she or he is the the one to the right.

 

[Cynthia12]

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Beautiful birds!! Glad it all worked out. They look so fluffy. Have never touched one..I hear that they are very soft.