Integrating chicks into flock at 4 weeks old.

[rosemarythyme]

Might want to consider separating out the roo for a week or two. Might help the rest of the flock learn to accept the babies at least, and give him a bit of time to cool his head about the fluffy little "intruders" that he's out to get.

 

[chickfused]

The littles are roosting tonight. They aren't up on the roosts with the bigs, but they're up on the framing for the nest boxes. The bigs came in after the littles, and they mostly ignored them (there was some half-hearted chasing, but no contact) and went to bed. Even Roux.

 

[chickfused]

I have a little who's been pecked bloody on her head. She got herself caught in some fabric and someone attacked her. There were two bigs standing over her when I found the situation, but they were not accosting her. Her hatchmates don't seem to care, and she's acting perfectly normal and not even hiding. What should I do? Just some antibiotic ointment?

Edit: Well, it's 40 minutes later and she's still perfectly normal. Running, playing, eating, drinking. I put some antibiotic ointment on her and some Blu-kote so no one will mess with her and let them go as I've been doing every night. Everyone's going to sleep.

Edit 2: Everyone's fine this morning, happy and healthy.

 

[chickfused]

Well, this morning I got up and there were some littles up on the bigs' roost. They were all standing next to each other with no issues at all. Little pecked one has continued to be fine, with no ill effects. I guess we're almost there.

 

[bruceha2000]

Glad the little one is OK

My young ones are still getting priority to that one section of roost. Of course the cheesy way I put the cardboard up it keeps falling over. Last night Rhea was over there, 2 of the littles were at the top of the ramp, 3 on the ramp on the other side of the cardboard being blocked by the other 2. 1 was out in the barn alley on the alpaca stand. I moved everyone around and rehung the cardboard. Have to decide when to let them fend for themselves on the roosts. Has to happen some time because if I keep making the hole in the cardboard bigger as the kids grow, any of the hens will be able to go up the ramp and through.

 

[chickfused]

Man, the littles are back off the roost and the entire flock is chasing them before bed now. At least they know how to go to their hidey hole. I guess the good part is that they don't stay there more than a few seconds so they must not be _that_ afraid? This is much harder than I was expecting.

 

[TJAnonymous]

My littles are 4 weeks old today. They still haven't figured out how to go into the coop at night. I have to manually carry them in one by one. Inside the coop, I've been putting them in a dog crate at night which keeps them safe from any bullies. I have an automatic door on my coop which opens at 6:30 am and closes at 9 pm. I didn't want the littles to run back outside and get trapped in the run after the door closes so that's another purpose of the crate for now.

 

[chickfused]

Well, it's been a bit, figured I'd drop in for an update. The littles are now semi-consistently at least, heading for the coop at night (I've been locking up the barn cat and letting them free range at end of day). They are sleeping up on the roost with the bigs, but immediately get down and hide under their old sleeping box until everyone's done eating and exited the coop in the morning. Overall, it's taking much longer than I expected, but no one's been hurt since that one day a long time ago. Soon they will be 9 weeks old - they seem awfully small for that age to be honest.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Well, it's been a bit, figured I'd drop in for an update. The littles are now semi-consistently at least, heading for the coop at night (I've been locking up the barn cat and letting them free range at end of day). They are sleeping up on the roost with the bigs, but immediately get down and hide under their old sleeping box until everyone's done eating and exited the coop in the morning. Overall, it's taking much longer than I expected, but no one's been hurt since that one day a long time ago. Soon they will be 9 weeks old - they seem awfully small for that age to be honest.

That's about as good as you can expect at this point, that no one's getting hurt and the little ones can roost at night, even if they're the first ones down in the morning and last to eat.

I always feel like my subsequent birds look smaller than the previous ones, but then I see the birds side by side when they're older, and they really aren't smaller (plus I have a mix of different breeds so that impacts their overall sizes).

 

[chickfused]

They still get pecked and bit and chased, but there's been no blood drawn. I'm considering adding more feeders. I've a flock of 7 and only 4 feeders and the bigs are even pecking and biting each other in the morning right now. I think food pressure might have something to do with it. Or the bigs are working out their pecking order as they get close to point of lay. I can definitely tell who the bottom chicken is now, but I'm still not sure who the matriarch is.