How to introduce the newbies

[chickmama320]

So the new babies appear to be about 5 weeks old. I'm not ready for them to be outside fulltime yet. Don't have a secure enough area for them since the hen and rooster are free range. However I would like to give them some outside time. How do I go about doing this? Is it safe for them to be with the hen and rooster if I am out there with them.

 

[midget_farms]

They should be OK because it sounds like there is a bunch of space. The rooster won't care. He likes all hens. But the other hens you will have to watch. Top hens don't like intruders & can be quite violent or even kill new birds.

If you are puting them out in the coop perminantly you just toss the new ones in the coop in the middle of the night when the others are asleep. When they wake up they can't remember the number of hens that were there when they went to bed so they assume the newcomers have been there all along.

You may try locking the hen & rooster in the coop for a couple hours while you exercise the new birds too - in order to give them some good yard time w/o fear of problems.


Good luck!