Integrating chicks into flock at 4 weeks old.

[aart]

My only concern for 4 week old chicks is their susceptibility to coccidiosis. I would be sure to introduce them to all the bacteria in your main chicken yard slowly and continue offering medicated feed to the littles. That's the only problem I've encountered when integrating my younger chicks with the rest of the flock.

I put my chicks into coop(behind wire) at one week old, have never had coccidiosis here tho, nor fed medicated feed..

 

[MaryZoe]

I put my chicks into coop(behind wire) at one week old, have never had coccidiosis here tho, nor fed medicated feed..

Ah. Lucky you. I live in southwest Florida. Coccidia is everywhere. Even if I put my chicks in a place in my backyard where adult chickens have never been, I have to introduce them carefully and slowly to the ground. And I have to completely sanitize my 3-6 week brooder coops between every new batch of chicks. It's bad here. Maybe b/c it never freezes to kill off the bacteria. No idea.

 

[aart]

Ah. Lucky you. I live in southwest Florida. Coccidia is everywhere. Even if I put my chicks in a place in my backyard where adult chickens have never been, I have to introduce them carefully and slowly to the ground. And I have to completely sanitize my 3-6 week brooder coops between every new batch of chicks. It's bad here. Maybe b/c it never freezes to kill off the bacteria. No idea.

Definitely harder to fight pathogens and pests in a place it never freezes.
One reason I moved back to MI after less than a year in FL.

 

[RobertaD1]

I followed your advice for the first time this spring with our first batch of this spring, in March. It was LIFE CHANGING! The biggest reason was, I had a group of 13, and it was JUST TOO MANY for my basement brooder.... My husband was NOT on board at first, and so I let him care for the babies in the basement, for about 3 days.... very shortly after, they went to the coop brooder! Those little boogers at 3 weeks wanted out, and did so just enough to make him crazy every time he went to change the water, food....etc.... LOL. I just sat in the kitchen and giggled every time I heard him cuss as he chased them around the basement. STILL makes me giggle thinking about it! With the group of 6 in May, we did keep them for a week in the basement, but... they went out ASAP...(he was of course the doubter). At 3 weeks, when I saw that one of the 6 was a cockerel, I cut the door, set up a ton of hiding spots.... let them free. Well, supervised visits in letting them free. By the end of their 5th week, the doors were open full time! Are they best buddies with the others?..... not yet... BUT, the cockerels are learning manners and the pullets are starting to integrate themselves with the other pullets. The older hens (3yr olds) have actually way more patience with the second round of babies!

I think EVERY person who has chickens should figure out a way to integrate their littles earlier! I REALLY think the reason we wait is, as a whole... we follow the WRONG advice! It is SO MUCH less stressful for ALL involved! The other reason is we look at these creatures as babies.... they are chickens, and need to act like chickens. We need to find a right and secure way to do this as it's the most natural way to establish new members! I just dont think I can go back to the basement brooder, ever.

 

[bruceha2000]

Definitely harder to fight pathogens and pests in a place it never freezes.
One reason I moved back to MI after less than a year in FL.

That and oppressive heat, humidity and the passing through of hurricanes?

 

[MaryZoe]

That and oppressive heat, humidity and the passing through of hurricanes?

Haha! Very true! As a native, I'm used to it. I went to school in northern Indiana--froze for 4 years and swore I'd never live north of Georgia again. I've held to it for the most part. But boy is it a pain with chickens!

 

[centralcaligirl]

I have never integrated chicks before, this is my first time. I am looking forward to trying it this way because I was really dreading the integration after reading about other people's experiences in the past!

I have 2, three year old Australorps and I'm integrating 4 chicks that are now a week old. They're going to have their first supervised visit tomorrow with the big girls in a separate section of the run I'm making them per the article, and my hope is to have them out there all day every day as soon as possible. However, our old coop is too small for six chickens and no way could I fit a brooder box in there, so we are putting in a new coop for all six. The babies are going to have to sleep in the brooder in the house until it is ready, almost exactly when they turn 4 weeks old.

The new coop will be 6x5=30 sf and we are extending the run to 8x16=128 sf. We live in town and are allowed a maximum of six chickens for our property size, so my goal is to generally have 4-6 chickens at any given time. It will have an automatic door and the flock will have access to the coop and run all day, as well as several hours of free ranging. At four weeks, they should be spending all day side-by-side together in the run and then I will start letting them out together using the tiny doors (after making sure they know how to use them, of course).

So my question is, how should I handle the integration at night, given that I can't start that for three more weeks? Should I move the big girls into the new coop first and then integrate the littles in there to sleep later? On another thread I read that someone actually used the new coop as a brooder for the chicks first and then the big girls moved in a week later, which sounded good to me. Or should I just move all six in at once? I have the option of using both coops for a while if needed.

 

[aart]

They're going to have their first supervised visit tomorrow with the big girls in a separate section of the run

Can you do something like this:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/short-on-time-recycle-a-prefab-brooder.73985/

 

[centralcaligirl]

Can you do something like this:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/short-on-time-recycle-a-prefab-brooder.73985/

Honestly that is the perfect solution, and I can definitely do that next time by just putting the old coop (4x4) inside the new extended run, running some power out to it, and building a self-enclosed run for the babies, similar to what you have but on a smaller scale.

Complicating all of this is that I found out last week (after I brought the chicks home) that a surgery I've been waiting for (postponed due to COVID) has been scheduled for next Friday, sigh... I have already had to call in some friends to help to get everything else done in time. I would like to do that but I don't think I can pull it off.

 

[Chezwilli]

So glad I found this thread. Was just about to build an adjoining run so that I could get my chicks used to being outside and near the adult hens. Thankfully I stumbled into this discussion. What a game changer! Put the chicks inside the main run in the cage we’d been using in the spare room as a brooder pen...definitely did not miss having that in the house! Tried the ‘look don’t touch’ method, but after a day, the big girls were paying almost no attention to the chicks, so the next afternoon my husband decided to let them out! As suggested we adapted the door, so they had a small hatch they couldn’t be followed through if retreating from an attack, and let them into the main run. They were super excited, I was panicked, standing in the run with a long stick to break up any vicious attacks, but it wasn’t too bad! There were a few pecks, and a couple of the big girls chased the chicks off when they ventured out too far, but it wasn’t as scary as I had expected. There are plenty of safe spots, as well as their cage, so most of the time they would just run under a bush etc if threatened. The next day my black silkie (who pecks everyone to make sure she doesn’t have to wait for food etc.) was waiting by the little pop door for the chicks to come out again! Did this for a few days, then because things were going so smoothly, decided to leave the door open today instead of locking the chicks back in after their supervised mixing time. They stayed out for the rest of the day, popping in and out of their safe space as wanted. This has been sooo much easier than the usual pecking order scraps when full sized birds are introduced! I will definitely introduce chicks early again next time!