integrating 2 chicks with one hen

kgflannery

Hatching
Sep 13, 2020
2
0
7
Hi

I had two hens that I raised as chicks together. One suddenly died a few weeks ago. My one remaining hen is a barred rock and I got two barred rock chicks at 8 weeks old. I have a small backyard hobby style coop (looks something like this https://www.chickencoopcompany.com/products/leghorn-cottage-chicken-coop-4-6-hens) that is surrounded by a fenced run. I have been keeping the chicks is a plastic dog crate at night next to the coop and during the day I let the hen out in the larger fenced run and put the chicks in the lower level of the coop so they are safe from the hen. When they are separated by the fence the hen hangs out very close to them. I have been doing that for over a week and in the early evening hours I let the chicks roam with the hen under observation. The hen has ocassionally pecked at them and the run off (I have small spaces for them to get away). So today I let me spend time together and I stepped away only to return to see the hen had them corners and they both had small bit of blood on their beaks and some feathers lost on the sides of their heads. Should I clean them up or just leave it? Also, any advice on how long it should take for this integration to work. The chicks are 9 weeks now. I was hoping by 10 weeks they would be integrated with her. Looking for advise on anyone that has done this with a small "flock" if you can even call 3 chickens a flock.
 
Photos of your actual set up would help. You mention having "small spaces" for the chicks to escape to but they may not be big enough, small enough (spacing) or placed well, so it would help to see what you've got. Ideally there should be no place that a chick can get cornered, i.e. all obstacles have at least 2 exits.

I would clean up the blood just to make sure the hen doesn't want to peck at it again, and just to make sure any damage isn't too bad.

As far as integration timing, there's no magic number. 1-2 weeks of look but don't touch is recommended, and then after that they can spend time together with supervision, and then without supervision (though in my case, that only happens when the chicks prove to me they know how to escape from the adults).
 

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