Integrating 6-8 week old hens with 5 month old hens with 1 rooster

[grannyhensdream]

Any suggestions as to how to bring these newbies in with the 5 month olds?

 

[Ridgerunner]

How many 5-month-old pullets do you have with that young cockerel? What do your facilities look like? How big, in feet or meters, are your various coops? How big, in feet or meters, are your various runs? How are they tied together? Photos might really help us understand what you have to work with.

Your 2-month-old pullets are old enough that cold weather is not a concern. That helps. Not knowing what you have to work with makes it very hard to get specific at all. In general, if you can, house the young pullets with wire separating them from the others for at least a week, I'd suggest a little longer. Then let them loose and see what happens. In my flock I'd expect the young pullets to very quickly learn to avoid the older ones from fear of being pecked or worse. Sometimes they surprise me, but I'd expect them to remain two separate flocks until the younger ones started to lay eggs. Then they merge into one flock. I have enough room in the coops and in the runs so they can remain two separate flocks until they grow up. I have no idea how much room you have or what your facilities look like.

Widely separated feeding and watering stations helps so the younger can eat and drink without being bullied. Especially if room is tight, clutter can help. Clutter means things they can hide under or behind or they can use to get over the older ones. Try to not force them to share a small space together.

Good luck!

 

[grannyhensdream]

Thank you. This is helpful. I hatched my own chicks and to my uneducated surprise
I ended up with 4 roos and 4 hens. I kept 1 roo and re-homed the other 3. now there is 1 roo and 4 hens hence the 8 more chicks waiting to join. My coop is TSC model that is meant for 16 chicks. I have 1 for my older flock plus additional run space and now built another for the newbies. The square footage of the run, which I added on to is 150sq ft plus the coop. I think that's enough space and will work on a separate area for the newbies as you suggested. thank you! This was helpful.

 

[Mrs. K]

Chickens are very territorial and a problem that I have seen, with the separate but can be seen, is that both the chicks and the hens have their territory.

What I have found is that if you can flip them, put one group in the others space, and vice versa. Or by letting out the big girls, and locking the littles in so that they can explore the new area without being chased for their lives. A couple days of that, and then things tend to go well.

However I do have a big run 20 x 30, and a large coop for the birds 6 x 8. And I have a lot of clutter, multiple feed bowls out of sight of each other.

Mrs K

 

[grannyhensdream]

Chickens are very territorial and a problem that I have seen, with the separate but can be seen, is that both the chicks and the hens have their territory.

What I have found is that if you can flip them, put one group in the others space, and vice versa. Or by letting out the big girls, and locking the littles in so that they can explore the new area without being chased for their lives. A couple days of that, and then things tend to go well.

However I do have a big run 20 x 30, and a large coop for the birds 6 x 8. And I have a lot of clutter, multiple feed bowls out of sight of each other.

Mrs K

Thank you. That's helpful. Currently they are separated but next to each other. This will certainly be an experience and hopefully not too painful, for the me OR the chickens.