Hi,
I am fairly new to all this chicken biz but it has been working great for me. I have a mixture of hens and roos. My Barred Rocks and my Silkies all free range and at first when I got them (from a man who gave me the whole lot due to cancer he couldn't take care of them), the bigger BR's bullied the Silkies. So, my hubby & I built another room onto the original small coop. At the same time, I added a seperate run from the other room. Immediately the bigger BR's would all go into the newer room & the Silkies would roost in the original (they sort themselves when they go to bed at night...cool!) At the same time, I had bought 6 Rhode Island Red Pullets from the local feed store. I fenced off a small Brooder area in the original coop and cut a small door to go out into the big pen yet it went into a smaller pen (4x8') I had made in the corner of the big main pen. Everyday, I would let the BR's and the Silkies out into the respective pens and I would open the door on the little Brooder/Grower room and the little pullets could run around in their smaller pen and still be able to feel like they were among all the bigger birds. Everyone loved it. The older birds (hens & roos) were constantly checking out the newbies & the newbies constantly watched the older ones. Just two days ago, I had the feeling it would be ok to release the newbies into the flock...they are only 7 weeks old. It went great! The older ones were nice to them, roosters and all! Not a one of them has picked on them, nothing. They let the little ones eat from their feeders/waterers. They even showed the little ones how to use the dirt spa. It is so neat to watch them all in their together. Amazed me! And, I spent the day out their watching and working in the area so I could keep my eye on how everyone did. Not one problem. When it came time to go to bed, I put the babies in on the roosts with the Silkies.....no problems, I stayed out their spying on them till pretty late last night. They all just roosted fine. Yesterday, I let everyone out to free range & the newbies were at first nervous and sat just outside the fence picking at grasses. Today, when I let them all out the newbies actually tested their wings and flew from the roosts to the outside. They didn't wander more that 10 ft. from the pen but they and the flock are getting along great! I really think the small pen inside the main pen made all the difference. I put them in the brooder pen at 3 wks. under a light and didn't let them out of the brooder until the daytime temps were in the 80's (they were 5 wks. old). So, for two wks. they had their little pen to run in to get acquainted with the adults. It worked out great!
Good luck with your chickens! Rhonda
