Integrating chicks with older chickens

[PatriotWay]

Its that time of year again and I have (7) 6 week old chicks, all fully feathered. I think they are ready to go into the run/coop with my 5 older chickens and 2 guinea hens. I'm unable to separate them once in the coop so is it okay for the chicks to start eating layer food? I can have a few playdates before I move them in completely but there is no simple way to divide it . Any advice?

 

[N F C]

Its that time of year again and I have (7) 6 week old chicks, all fully feathered. I think they are ready to go into the run/coop with my 5 older chickens and 2 guinea hens. I'm unable to separate them once in the coop so is it okay for the chicks to start eating layer food? I can have a few playdates before I move them in completely but there is no simple way to divide it . Any advice?

Even though the 6-week olds are fully feathered that doesn't mean they can protect themselves against older (and I presume bigger) chickens without some time for them all to adjust to each other. Find some way that they can all "look but don't touch" each other for a little while (maybe 2 weeks or so). Some pecking will probably still happen even with a proper integration period but it shouldn't last longer than it takes for the pecking order to be re-established.

When mingling the two sets of birds, you want to drop the older girls back down to what the little ones eat and provide a source of calcium at all times for the older girls to have whenever they need to.

Good luck to you!

 

[FridayYet]

Layer food has too much calcium for growing chicks, and usually not enough protein. Like NorthFLChick said, you might want to switch everyone to a grower feed and offer calcium free-choice on the side. Your older hens will eat the calcium as needed. (That's what I did.)

Once you put them together, you can also make a temporary place that the little ones can go in and out of but the big ones can't get into. It gives them a safe place to hide if they are getting picked on.

Good luck with your flock!