How old to add new chicks to existing flock?

[Ocala RIR]

Hmm? I don't know where someone says 8 weeks to add chicks. Very bad idea! It was a instant war zone. My idea is as soon the chicks gets the same size as the hen. Try again. I have enough space in my coop and hopefully they will leave each other alone.

 

[alibabba]

This is helpful, I'm thinking of pulling my keepers out of the chick pen and letting them range with the big girls.
The big hens don't show much interest in them at all.

It the 2 little D'Uccles that stand at the fence, puff up feathers and scream in the chicks faces.

The big girls and bantams are great buddies. I had read here about letting them just encounter each other while free ranging. That worked well for me. They went to their own coops for months, til the chicken mansion was done.

Don't have enough housing to do that right now. I may try the add them at night, make a big ruckus in the morning thing to distract everyone, then let em go their ways...And watch for trouble.

 

[MustangChick]

I used a wire dog kennel inside the coop to integrate. It wasn't easy, but after 3 weeks they were fully integrated! It's best to introduce when both flocks are roughly the same size. I kept a very close eye on them and I never allowed bullying. The dog kennel worked wonders.

I used a technique very similar to this with my silkie chicks. Only it was a separate outdoor coop and run in the middle of the 16-week-olds' free range yard. They stayed in there for over a month, till they were about 12 weeks old. Then we let them out to start mingling with the others. We watch them closely, thank goodness. The silkies refuse to fight back and seem to zone out and forget to run half the time. The older pullets tear them up! When you say you never allow bullying, what exactly does that mean? How do you not allow it? We have 4 pullets and 1 cockerel. The cockerel tries to help us keep order, but all four pullets attack the poor silkies

. Help!

 

[ivana]

I have two batches 4 eight weeks old and 4 3 weeks old a few weeks ago I let them roam the yard together and discouraged bullying ; then I nervously took out the divider a few days ago and they are getting along well ; each batch has a rooster (accidentally) and the big one is a very sweet chicken

Daddy