Integrated mother and chicks with rest of flock today

[Bookworm chick]

Everything went smoothly. There were 4 other hen/pullets and 1 rooster. The mother had a brief skirmish with her sister, but that was settled quickly with the mother still at the top of the pecking order (just below the rooster).
The curious thing was that she allowed the rooster to approach and didn't even ruffle up her feathers. The other hen/pullets were a different story. They kept their distance all day. The rooster would lead them away from mama and chicks when things got tense.
I was just sitting in my lawn chair watching them all dust bathe and laughing. Wish I'd brought my camera down to the run.

 

[Eggs4Sale]

I've been wondering how well this would go for us. Glad to hear you had success!

 

[Sooz]

What age were the chicks when you introduced them? I have a mother who is looking after 9 chicks who are about 4 weeks old and I am not sure when to introduce them to the rest of the flock.

 

[Bookworm chick]

The chicks were two weeks old.
The brooder coop was a coop within a coop. My husband made a box for the mother to hatch and wired off a section of the coop with the box inside it. Her area is about 2 ft. by 8 ft. approx. The rest of the flock could see the mother and chicks. When they were a week old, I shut the flock outside in the run for a couple of hours each day and let the mama and chicks out into the coop to scratch around. I have to stress that the mother IS the alpha pullet. She was the boss before the chicks and is still the boss. The only challenges were from her 2 sisters. The barred rocks are very docile (and at the bottom of the pecking order) so there was no challenge there. I'm not sure if the barred rocks would have an easy time of it if they were to hatch chicks.

Last night she went back into her brooder box so I shut the gate. I don't know if she will be challenged each new day or not. She was pretty assertive but her sisters might be persistent. I was surprised that she would be such a good mother, being as young as she is (not a year old yet).

 

[Sooz]

I think I will wait a while as Lucy and the chicks are completely separated from the rest and they are very happy were they are. I might as well wait till they are bigger. Lucy would not be anynear the alpha hen and I would only worry about the chicks.