Integrate all my chickens at once in new coop?

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I would personally add all them together, you didn't mention how many of each age group there is and whether the old coop is near by, and can they return to it? Which you would have troubles with. I personally would make a small pen within the coop to put the young ones in at night for a while, depending on how many it doesn't have to be large but it gets the babies out of the way and they can have some safe alone time.

I would then let everyone mingle during the day, under supervision until I feel it's going okay, I would remove the babies to their pen if there seems to be any trouble. It does sound like you have already introduced everyone to each other so hopefully it will go smoothly.

I would agree with having different obstacles to break up line of sight, logs, a old table on its side, stuff to get up on, under or into. And give the birds stuff to scratch and peck at. I will often dig a hole or two in the run to get something started.

With the roosts the main thing is whether there are enough so that there's some distance between them, so young ones don't have to roost near the older ones which will get them repeatedly pecked.

Eventually you should be able to leave the babies out at night and they will probably sleep on the floor for a bit before venturing into the roosts eventually. I will make babies a short roost made out of 2x4 on their side, with a stick screwed to them, to give to them while in their little pen to practice.

 

[Leigti]

I let them all free range today for a couple hours. The two older chickens could've cared less. A couple of the others though were a little snotty. But nothing major. I think it helped that some of my grass is about a foot tall after a while The little ones head down in a clump of grass and watched the others. The others would walk by once in a while and look at them but no fights. I plan to do this every day this week after work. They had the entire yard and the little ones stayed in about 20 ft.² of it. The others wondered in and out of the little area now and then.
The coop is done now I just need to paint it.

 

[Rosemarys Roost]

I have had a similar problem. I have several different breeds of chooks including four groups of pekins of different ages. The oldest roo and his 3 ladies had their own pen; I purchased chicks at the same time (now maturing) which are still in their own pen; then I incubated two lots of chicks about a month apart. The four groups were kept separate until recently. I also had silkies in their own pen. The youngest pekins had been living in a small pen on my veranda but it was time to move them outside into a proper coop. The next oldest pekins were in a children's playpen inside the silkies' pen. So, I moved the silkies into the oldest pekins' pen (next door to each other) and at the same time removed the lot that were in the playpen in the silkies' pen and allowed them to mix with the oldest birds. The young ones from the veranda are now in the playpen and getting to know the older birds that wander the main pen. So, all the birds were in different accommodation. Have I confused everyone yet? I feel confused just reading this! All in all, they are getting on quite well. However, I have a number of dog kennels/dog carriers that I sometimes use as nesting boxes and I have one in what was the silkies' pen so that my favourite pekin (Chickadee who rides around on my shoulder or on my hat) and her two sisters can hide if the older ones get pushy. I do feed and water them in separate areas and, so far, things are working well. I will keep you posted.

 

[mimsy]

I'm in the process of the exact same thing. I had 3, 4 year old hens (2 polish and a laced wynadotte bantam) and then got 4 more chicks (welsummer, 2 blue andalusions and a speckled sussex) this year, my husband got a turkey so now we have her/him too with the chicks and they are all doing fine and are about 8 weeks old now. Then my neighbor, who no longer have chickens and are retired snowbirds found a chicken in their yard that none of the other neighbors say is theirs. Long story short we have her now too. We think she is a red sex link thats probably about a year old. We've been integrating her with are older girls and so far so good. They are wearily excepting her and it's actually making our little bantam move up to being able to sleep on the same level as the polish who prior to this would make her sleep lower. Oddly no one uses the top perch-honestly I don't know if the polish even know it's there, they are derpy birds. So our new girl, Missy has been sleeping up there and it's like she doesn't exist to the other 3 if she stays up there.

We have an old coop and my husband just built a new one. The main coop is 4 x 8 like yours, though the entire building is 8 x 8. The other half has a brooder, storage shelves up high and in case we need to separate the turkeys sleeping quarters ever. The inside is 8 feet tall, so we have lots of height. The older girls have not been put in there yet. The chicks are all in the brooder side, though since they are getting big I opened the brooder so they have the whole 4X8 space. The two spaces are separated by hardware wire. We will probably add a run sometime this summer in case we ever decide to go on a v acation (thats a big fat maybe, we really don't go anywhere). Otherwise eveyrone just free ranges the fenced backyard all day. The new coop was built where our old veggie garden was so it does have a little picket fence around it that are older girls don't jump..cause they are lazy mostly I think. That so far is working out since I can let the babies out with human supervision in the smaller garden area and the older girls can see them. The plan is to add the older girls to the coop and leave the new ones on the brooder/supply side till we are sure everyone gets along. I figure they will be sleeping in the same place..just separated by wire in the meantime.

I'm not sure if I'm over thinking or under thinking it all. But when building this I did not plan on the extra one year old hen or the turkey, so hopefully all goes well. I also don't have a covered run right now, though if it rains they usually don't care, or if they do they go through the dog door and come in the house (though all they make it to is the mud room since I keep the door shut in there so I don't have dirty dogs running through the house) There is the border collies dog kennel in there and the two polish like to sleep with him sometimes when the weather gets cold.

 

[Leigti]

It definitely is hard to explain when there are so many different age groups and pens. I think I'm going to put the youngest ones in the new coop and run first. I will get it set up with all the different food and water stations and furniture it's going to have and let them have it for a week by themselves. I will block off the nest boxes to keep them out of there. Then next week and I will put the others in.
I just know I'm going to be sitting there staring at them for hours over the next two weekends And I'll probably check on them three times every night.
I planned on leaving them all together for two weeks, I figure that would be plenty of time to establish the new one as home and demolish the old one. I'll let everybody know how it goes in a couple weeks.
It is nice to know I'm not the only one with this "dilemma". The local people that I know who have chickens just call the old ones and get new ones, they don't integrate.