How to keep big hens and little hens feed separate

[PoppiesChicks]

I will try to get a picture tomorrow. Mine's nothing fancy either. I just had to modify it as I went because those big hens are persistent. They would find any tiny hole and push their way through.

 

[mulewagon]

With this year's chicks I just put everybody on Chick Starter. And we got some larger waterers, and took the big bowl out of the pen for awhile. I have a pile of oyster shell on the ground (it was intended to be offered in a bowl, but the rats chewed the bag!) And I throw out scratch, greens, etc and they can all choose what they want to eat.

This works way, way better than last time, when I was trying to keep the chicks' food separate from the hens'. Now I just relax and watch their mammas raise them!

 

[sab]

Thanks folks for all the remarks! These chicks are not from these hens. I'll be adding to the flock. We're building a coop now - an Embassy Suites Coop. I have lots of room to add more birds. I figure just do a few a year, learn how to do it right and by having different aged birds, my egg production should be pretty steady. At least that's what I think....

I'm a little less stressed now from reading your comments!!

 

[gregnlinda]

Our chicks weren't from our hens either. They haven't even started laying yet. We purchased 4 australorps and added them to our older ones, 4 cochins and a dozen Rhode island reds. They all have integrated well. The young australorps follow one of the cochins everywhere and she seems to "mother "them very well
So relax and enjoy your birds! It's a wonderful journey!

 

[cpchicks]

Mulewagon,
Is your chick starter medicated? If so, you wouldn't want to feed it to your hens if they are laying. A better choice of a feed for all of them would be flockraiser and free choice oyster shell for the hens. It's not advised to eat the eggs of hens eating medicated food.

Enjoy!

 

[gryeyes]

I have a flock with varying ages of participants. I do not use layer feed at all; everybody gets Nutrena "All Flock." (Those in the brooder(s) and those in "grow out" coops get medicated chick starter.) Crushed oyster shell is available to them free choice, 24/7.

There is no way I could segregate the youngsters from the oldsters, everybody released from the segregation/integration "grow out" coops to range freely around the property gets the same feed, regardless of their ages.

 

[sab]

I can't tell you folks how thankful I am for your responses. So this is what I take from all this.... correct me if I am wrong...

I should keep the new (now around 8 weeks old) biddy birds in the tractor in the run for the year old girls to get used to seeing. I should continue to feed the little girls the chick starter since I have a big bag. I should do this for about 2 weeks. Then I might try free ranging them together under my very watchful eye. But the little birds then go back to the tractor in the run at night. Big girls to the coop. Then after about 2 more weeks, one night I should carry the little girls in 1 x 1 and place them on the roost with the big girls. I am guessing this should not happen until they have an adult size to them or can I do this with a visible size difference??? At that point, if the big girls are accepting of the little ones, then I should change the adult ladies from the layer they are on and the little girls from the starter they are on and go with flock raiser with oyster shell in separate bowl until all the ladies are laying - then go back to the layer grumbles.

Sound like I have it right??

The coop is under construction. We have been working on it everyday for almost 2 weeks now. I'm ready to be done. In my thinking, if these birds can be so easily confused/tricked by putting new birds beside them @ night for them to wake up in the AM with -- that perhaps the additional confusing factor of a new coop might make the transition easier for all the girls. The timing won't be right for that though. I would have to wait a few weeks for the little girls to get some size on them (if that is a requirement of having them together) before I can put the big girls in their new coop/run. They all live in tractors right now. One tractor has 3 adult chickens and a pekin duck and the other has 4 little girls (I hope 4 girls - 2 might be roos).

 

[Judy]

Quote:
This is what I do, or I feed them all a local "starter/grower" that is not medicated. Neither has any animal protein in it so I supplement that. I have chickens from 2 weeks to 4 years, including roos, in one flock. I never see the chicks bother the oyster shell, and I rarely see a soft shelled egg.

 

[sab]

ddawn

But do you see the 4 year olds bothering the 2 week olds? The food issue was only part of my query -- I wonder how to keep the newbies in the flock from being pecked. I have a friend who has had chickens for years and she told me she never had any luck combining flocks. She has experience. I don't. Yet you folks make it sound like it happens all the time with little effort. Just saying....

 

[gregnlinda]

Well, I suppose everyone has varying ways they do things based on individual setups, experience, etc. I still consider myself kind of a rookie, so others may have other good info. We had a half dozen Rhode islands a few years ago until a weasel killed them. This year we're ready again. We bought all our chicks within the same week, except the australorps, which we got a month or so later. By then the older girls were in their finished coop. We kept the younger chicks indoors for about a week then put them in the coop with the others. I wanted them to get used to each other as quickly as possible. So we made a small cube from chicken wire with a hole for babies to get in and out, but too small for big girls. We put their crumble and water inside their cube. As they got braver they would sneak in around the big girls at the big feeder. Until one of the bigger ones would give them a peck and send them scurrying back to their cube. In a matter of a couple of weeks, they were all mingling quite nicely, we removed their little cube and haven't had any problem! They all free range together in the day and head for the coop at night. Hope this helps! Wish you well!