Integrating Farm chickens and hatchery chicks

[HalfMileLaneChickenMama]

Help! I’m brand new to chickens so please be kind.

I have a couple of 10 week old pullets that I got from a local farmer when they were chicks. Just recently he had more available, 1 ended up being an 18 week Buff Orpington and 1 he says is a 6 week Black Copper Maran but she looks younger to me. I was expecting the Maran to be big enough to go in with the other birds but she is not. I also had no clue about quarantining until after I had already put the new birds in. They are, however all from the same farm.

I also have Hatchery chicks coming tomorrow. I’m not sure where to put the poor 6 week chick. She is too small to go with the big girls, they keep picking at her so I brought her back in the house in the brooder. However, I think she’ll be too big to go in with the new chicks when they come, and I am now worried about spreading potential disease to the new chicks.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hi, welcome to the forum from Louisiana, glad you joined,

First let's talk about quarantine associated with disease or parasites. When you go to school or work you could catch a disease if someone there has one. A lot of the time they don't have a disease but they certainly could. If you put two chickens together to live, if one has a disease the other is likely to catch it. Almost certain to, if one has a disease. Not all do. Same thing applies to parasites. And even if a human has a disease or parasite it rarely kills you. If you catch something it is usually more of an inconvenience that can be treated.

Some flocks, probably many flocks, have a parasite or disease that they have developed immunity to. Coccidiosis is a good example, basically a parasite that can cause a disease if the numbers of the parasite get out of control. But if the chicks or chickens are exposed to that parasite for two or three weeks without the numbers becoming overwhelming they develop immunity to that strain of that bug. They are still carriers and can spread the bug, but will not get sick, no matter how long they are quarantined. You will never know they have it. In that case quarantine doesn't mean anything. There will always be a risk when you merge chickens from different backgrounds, though I consider chicks form a hatchery to be as safe as you can get.

I'm not trying to downplay the importance of quarantine applied in the right circumstances. If a bird has been exposed to a new bird recently it could have caught a disease or have a parasite, then quarantine can save your flock. Flocks have been wiped out by bringing in diseases, usually not with parasites. If you are worried about something that the flock has developed flock immunity to it makes no difference.

Yours are not those circumstances. All of your chickens came from the same flock. They have already been exposed to what the others may have. Basically the two pullets have been in quarantine since you got them. The hatchery chicks should be very clean. With those chickens already there, any disease or parasite they have a flock immunity to (if any) is already at your place. That's the environment the new chicks are going into. They cannot avoid it.

I expose my chicks to their environment as soon as I can so they can start to work on building any flock immunities they may need. After two or three days in the brooder I feed them a small amount of dirt from the run where the adults are. This gets them any probiotics the adults have, gets grit in their system, and exposes them to anything they need to start working on the strengthen their immune system. I don't try to keep them in a sterile environment and then toss them into the environment they have to live in unprepared.

Stop worrying about quarantine. It would probably not have done you any good anyway, especially since yours have been in quarantine since they got there. For other people in other circumstances quarantine is highly recommended.

Single chickens can be hard to integrate. Different maturity levels make it harder. There are techniques to help, but what are you working with? What do your facilities (coop and run) look like? How big are they in feet or meters? Photos showing what they look like could really help. Do you free range or are they always confined? Where will your brooder be for those new hatchery chicks? Where do you live so we have an idea about your climate, your weather could be important wiht those new chicks. To me, it is a lot easier to give specific suggestions if I know what you are working with.

In general it helps to integrate if you house the chickens separate form each other but across wire so they can see each other, give them as much room as you can when they integrate, maybe improve the quality of what room you have by giving them clutter (stuff they can hide under, behind, or over), and don't force them to be together in a small space any more than you have to. Let them handle things at their pace. As you have seen it is not always this complicated, your 10 and 18 week olds did not have a problem. Each situation is different.

 

[HalfMileLaneChickenMama]

This is my coop and run and the section I have wired off for the 6 week old chick to hang out during the day. The run is 16 by 12 feet and and the coop is about 4 by 8. We live in Southern Iowa.

 

[HalfMileLaneChickenMama]

They do not free range due to our neighbor’s dogs. The newborn chicks brooder will be in our home in our sunroom

 

[Ridgerunner]

I like the general idea for a quick solution but how will that cardboard box hold up in the rain or high wind? Your temperatures look warm enough so you don't have to worry about that chick getting cold. Do you consider your run predator proof? If it is and if you can put a waterproof shelter in there you could let the chick sleep out there instead of bringing it in to the brooder at night. Maybe you could fence off a small area in the coop for that chick to sleep if you are going to be moving it daily anyway but it is easier on you if it can sleep out there somewhere.

I don't think there is enough size difference in yours for the safe haven concept. That's where you put a hole big enough for the chick to get through in that fence but too small for the older ones to get through. Besides, if they wanted to they could fly over that fence.

With my chickens the chicks tend to avoid the older ones. If they invade the personal space of the older ones they tend to get pecked so it doesn't take long for them to learn to not invade that personal space. Mine tend to form sub-flocks based on age until they reach a certain level of maturity, then they merge into one flock. It doesn't always work out that way as you have seen with your 10 and 18 week olds but I've seen that a lot.

What I would try would be to leave the 6 week old in that area during the day for a week before I let it try to mingle with the others. The size of the run isn't bad, I was afraid it would be smaller. If you could, adding some clutter would be good. You want to break up line-of-sight so they are not always in vision. Things I'd consider would be to leave a piece of0 plywood or a pallet leaning against the fence but tied so it won't blow over so the chick can get between the fenced and whatever is leaning. Maybe set something up on some cinder blocks so the chick can get underneath, I've seen a pallet or an old satellite dish. Whatever you have. One lady puts a lawn chair out there, turned over so when they perch on it and poop you can turn the chair upright and have a clean place to sit down if you want to spend time out there. Or set a small square bale of hay in there. It can help if there are separate feeding and watering stations with broken line-of-sight so they can eat and drink without being bullied away.

How many hatchery chicks are you getting? Do you plan to put them in that same coop? It looks pretty small for integration. My preferred method is to raise the chicks with the flock. My brooder is in my coop so the others see the chicks every day. Around 5 weeks old I turn the chicks loose. That's how easy my integration is. But I have an 8x12 coop and over 3,000 square feet outside available for them plus they grew up with the flock. You don't have that.

In your case I'd be really tempted to build a shelter inside your run where you could house this 6 week old for now while integrating and the hatchery chicks when they are ready to go outside. Fence off a small piece of the run so they can see and be seen by the others. If you are going to keep getting more chicks you'll need it anyway, plus you will need a bigger coop and probably run.