I know this is prob. on here some where but I cant find it... but how do I expand my flock? right now i have 10 hens mixed breed. I would like to add some EE and maybe some meat birds...my hens are 20 weeks old so how would I go about expanding so that i dont have issues wuth pecking order?... or will i have to house them in a different coop? can they free range together? i know the feed for meat birds and egg birds are different
With meat birds you soo do not want them with your regular chickens as they are really messy to raise and will smush your smaller birds. Adding new layers is as simple as dividing the coop temporarily until the chicks are old enough to range with the others.
Believe it or not chickens can't count. I've proven that if you add new chickens well after dark when everyone is asleep (its ok if they wake up). In the morning no one was the wiser. Now if you are planning to add 20 chickens this might be a problem. But I had 3 and added 5 (coons took 4 of those but that is another story). All was well.