Integrate 5 chicks and Mum back into flock of 15-help!

[ChelsNChickens]

I've read through some other posts but they all have less than 5 existing hens in the main flock when integrating.

We have 15 birds in our main coop, 14 hens and a rooster. We have a mom and 5 chick's (one 7week old male; four 5 week Olds, 2 hens, 2 roosters.) We need to move them back with the main flock. They haven't been able to see eachother and I'm wondering what the best approach would be.

Is a separate coop/space needed to integrate? Or adding an additional roost in the main coop ok?

We are also receiving 10 lavendar Orrpington chicks coming and planned to put them with a broody hen we can't break from brood, in a separate coop.

 

[junior67]

Sorry I can't help but hope someone can. I keep my broodys and chicks in with the flock.

 

[babychickens321]

I've read through some other posts but they all have less than 5 existing hens in the main flock when integrating.

We have 15 birds in our main coop, 14 hens and a rooster. We have a mom and 5 chick's (one 7week old male; four 5 week Olds, 2 hens, 2 roosters.) We need to move them back with the main flock. They haven't been able to see eachother and I'm wondering what the best approach would be.

Is a separate coop/space needed to integrate? Or adding an additional roost in the main coop ok?

We are also receiving 10 lavendar Orrpington chicks coming and planned to put them with a broody hen we can't break from brood, in a separate coop.

I know you posted at like August so its probably no help now, but I would section of a little bit of the coop off with wire so everyone can see her and know she's there but wont be able to attack her or the chickens. Also create a mini run outdoors as well, or if you have a coop and run attached with a predator proof run, you could section off a bit of the run, so the chickens could see her during daytime, because night time in the coop doesn't really count. And then let her out with the rest of the chickens to hang about whilst supervising her and the chicks to make sure they dont get hurt. And if 15 chickens might be too much for you, maybe close some in the coop so less are with her. But I think it should be fine if they have been seeing her everyday but just caged off. But still supervise until everyone gets comfortable because there might be quite a bit of pecking

 

[ChelsNChickens]

I know you posted at like August so its probably no help now, but I would section of a little bit of the coop off with wire so everyone can see her and know she's there but wont be able to attack her or the chickens. Also create a mini run outdoors as well, or if you have a coop and run attached with a predator proof run, you could section off a bit of the run, so the chickens could see her during daytime, because night time in the coop doesn't really count. And then let her out with the rest of the chickens to hang about whilst supervising her and the chicks to make sure they dont get hurt. And if 15 chickens might be too much for you, maybe close some in the coop so less are with her. But I think it should be fine if they have been seeing her everyday but just caged off. But still supervise until everyone gets comfortable because there might be quite a bit of pecking

They are already integrated and just incase other comes across this I thought I'd share what we did too. Very similar to what you shared! We have a coop and large outdoor run that has multiple levels, just from being on a hill and having a falling tree trunk built in the middle of their run.

We ended up putting fencing with chicken wire as a smaller section on the outdoor run so they could see everyone during the day but not get to them. We kept them there for about 2 weeks until they were a bit bigger. We did have to put a top on it because the bigger head would sometimes jump in after their food but no pecking happened.


The integration went well. We have 5 roosters right now. 4 we bred and we will be eating 3 of them once they're big enough and we decide who we're keeping. But even with that many roosters, we haven't had any issues.