Skhapa
In the Brooder
Hey everyone, I've been looking and read quite a few different threads about integrating chicks into an existing flock. I'm unsure if I missed it, but couldn't find a similar situation so I'm asking for some recommendations.
I've decided to keep one chick from our meat birds, he was an accidental chick in the shipment, so obviously he is to stay. I'm under the assumption that he will be a roo, as we had ordered all males, and I believe he's a Light Brahma.
Here's my conundrum. Fabio was hatched April 18th, and I will be getting 4 more chicks (2 salmon favorelle, 2 olive eggers) on May 7th, by that time he will be almost 3 weeks old. On May 21st, I will be getting 3 more chicks (black copper marans) so at that time he will be almost 5 weeks old. We have electricity in our coop, and plan to build a brooding area out there for our chick/flock integration, but we also are currently brooding in the house. (So we'll have two areas.)
Do you think the best approach would be to integrate Fabio with the first set of chicks inside the house, and when the second set of chicks arrive, move them to the coop? They would be at 2/3 weeks of age at that point.
I thought maybe of doing a three step integration, so each set of chicks would integrate separately, but then Fabio would be facing the current flock of 7 EE by himself and would not have any chicks with him.
Or do you think just integrating all three sets of chicks in the house and then moving them to the coop would be best? My concern with that method is that there will be such a size difference between Fabio and the youngest that I wouldn't necessarily be able to create an area the chicks can get into that the older hens could not.
This is the first time we've done flock integration, and I'm hoping I've learned enough that it'll go smoothly. But I'm seeking advice as I know there's much more experience here than at home!
I've decided to keep one chick from our meat birds, he was an accidental chick in the shipment, so obviously he is to stay. I'm under the assumption that he will be a roo, as we had ordered all males, and I believe he's a Light Brahma.
Here's my conundrum. Fabio was hatched April 18th, and I will be getting 4 more chicks (2 salmon favorelle, 2 olive eggers) on May 7th, by that time he will be almost 3 weeks old. On May 21st, I will be getting 3 more chicks (black copper marans) so at that time he will be almost 5 weeks old. We have electricity in our coop, and plan to build a brooding area out there for our chick/flock integration, but we also are currently brooding in the house. (So we'll have two areas.)
Do you think the best approach would be to integrate Fabio with the first set of chicks inside the house, and when the second set of chicks arrive, move them to the coop? They would be at 2/3 weeks of age at that point.
I thought maybe of doing a three step integration, so each set of chicks would integrate separately, but then Fabio would be facing the current flock of 7 EE by himself and would not have any chicks with him.
Or do you think just integrating all three sets of chicks in the house and then moving them to the coop would be best? My concern with that method is that there will be such a size difference between Fabio and the youngest that I wouldn't necessarily be able to create an area the chicks can get into that the older hens could not.
This is the first time we've done flock integration, and I'm hoping I've learned enough that it'll go smoothly. But I'm seeking advice as I know there's much more experience here than at home!
