How to put all my chickens of different ages together?

[annmarie33]

Its a long story but I have 2 coops right now. They are right by each other. Currently they are not free ranging. 1 coop has a broody hen with her 3 babies that are about a month old. I let them free range at first but she kept taking them by the dog run and the chicks would go in it and one got eaten. So until they are big enough not to fit through I am keeping them in the coop. She hasn't layed eggs yet and is a very good mom. She used to have a flock but all of them got killed or eaten bc they were roosters. She is sweet and lets you hold her and her babies.
The other coop has 17 chicks that are 7 weeks old and are not completely feathered. Im sure there are roosters but can't tell quite yet. So I know that number will go down but it will be a few months before I will cull those to make sure.
Then I have 9 chicks inside that are a few days old.
Should I incorporate the 2 coops once everyone is feathered? Or once the hen starts laying again? They know about each other but I don't know if they would get along.
Should I just let them all out and see what happens or is that a bad idea?
I googled this but everyone seems to do things differently and in my situation I have 4 different ages to worry about lol

 

[Den in Penn]

Get some temporary fencing around the coops so you can let them out and mingle without worrying about them getting into the dog kennel. If you do that you can let the mother and her chicks mingle with the seven week olds. Do that for a few weeks and put those two groups together in one coop. Then move the youngest out to the empty coop. The older two groups of chicks should be big enough then they can no longer fit through the dog's fence. Unless those are really big holes. Then you can rearrange the temporary fence to contain the youngest in their coop till they are to big as well.

 

[annmarie33]

The dog run is chain link and I think 2 by 2. They are in different places but the hen seems to want to be by the dogs. They used to all be together but when we had the chicks batch I put the dogs on the run so that the hen wouldn't have to worry. So I attempted to separate but it didn't work. I never thought the chicks would go into the dog run. Is there a special way to put the two coops together? Should I let them both out and see how they do?

 

[aart]

I agree with Den's suggestion to put some temporary fencing around both coops/runs so the outside groups can mingle, but still access their own spaces.

A roll of 1 x 2 x 48" welded wire fencing would work great for this, pretty easy to set up a curved piece that encompassed the run door of both coops.

Pics of these 2 coops/runs would help us help you.

 

[annmarie33]

 

[annmarie33]

 

[annmarie33]

This shows the internal fence we put up with 1 inch chicken wire on the bottom. The fencing around the whole yard is how the chicks are getting through. The mom flies up over and the chickens can get through that and get to the where the dogs are

 

[Den in Penn]

Might be easier to make the dog kennel's fencing tighter with chicken wire around the bottom. Make sure it goes alt the way to the ground. Chicks can get under some fairly small openings. And don't forget about the door.