Integrating/Free Ranging - Help!

[Cluck Wild Farm]

I have eleven, 9 week old pullets, and six, 6 week old ducks that I need to integrate with my four hens because they're outgrowing their current living area. I raised them from chicks/ducklings inside a brooder in our house, then moved them to a fenced off part of the big chicken coop about three weeks ago in hopes that the four big hens would get used to them. I attempted to put the pullets/ducklings into the big girl coop a few evenings ago, and the lowest hen on the totem pole attacked the pullets, pulling out feathers and scaring them half to death. They didn't seem to care so much about the ducks, the ducks are pretty huge at this point, and the pullets were easier pickin' - though the ducks were still scared. So I gathered the terrified pullets/ducklings up, and put them back into their enclosed area of the coop. My big girls free range, and the area I have fenced off for the pullets has its own door out of the coop. So I was considering letting everyone out to free range, then go back into their individual coops at night. After a few days of doing this, THEN move them into the big coop. I'm concerned that if I put them in the enclosed coop with the big girls all night by themselves, that one or two of them might end up dead or badly injured. Don't know what to do, this is my first time ever integrating new flock members. Any thoughts, or advice?

 

[azelgin]

I think you're on the right track. That's about the way I've always done it. Separate, but same coop, to get used to each other, then out to free range. I have lost a youngster, but only once. The great outdoors will give the youngsters a way to escape the hens. It probably helps to let the hens establish their dominance, in a bigger area than the coop, so there is less chance of a chick getting cornered and hurt.
You won't lose a chick during the night, there's not much happening in the dark. The biggest pain I've run across is finding the scared chicks sleeping in the nest. Then, there's that habit, that I need to break them of.
If anything is going to go wrong, it'll be in the early morning. How early are you willing to get up and let them out?

 

[Cluck Wild Farm]

I usually wake up before its light outside, around six in the morning. I leave a light on in the coop 24/7 - should I turn that off when I do move the little ones into the big coop, so the hens can't see them in the dark?

 

[azelgin]

Yea, you really don't want a light on. Chickens can't see worth a darn, in the dark. That's one of the things that makes them so vulnerable to predators. You might have to get the young ones used to the dark, first. It sounds strange, but they sometimes freak out, when it goes dark all of a sudden. I put my coop light on a dimmer and turn it down over a few days. This is when I have them confined to the coop. You might not need to, if they are out free ranging and come in on their own, with the daylight gradually turning to night.