Integrating my chickens.

[CrazyChickLady64]

Hello everyone I could use your advice on integration of my chickens I have a Cockerel and hen Ayam Cemani that are 12 weeks and and 5 7 week old Ayam Cemani silkies and blue sexlink that have been in a coop together for 4 weeks now. See no touch. I tried to allow them to be together and the 12wk hen seems fine she didn't go after the younger ones but the cockerel did he started pecking at the little ones. Will he just do this a little or do I need to worry he will hurt them? TIA

 

[Bananabread]

Establishing the pecking order...it's inevitable. After doing the see no touch similar to you for a week or two, I then let them hang out together with a bowl of scratch in one hand and a broom in the other. I sprinkle the scratch around to distract them and gentle separate them with the broom with the other should they get aggressive. Once it's clear they have calmed down, I then back out of the run/space and watch from a distance. Any glimmer/shimmer or twinkle of an aggressive encounter, I come back in. Eventually they see the broom as the top of the pecking order...lol... and to be clear, its just used to gently separate them. Last thing I recommend, depending on your set up, is making sure you can still separate them back into their two enclosures at the end of the day (or after 30 minnutes if it's still too intense). This requires closing off the secondary space once you integrate so you can quickly move one group back into the space without having the shew the other group out of it...which is when it gets chaotic. If you dont close off the secondary space to reserve it for separation later, the other group's curiosity will immediately pull them into that enclosure to inspect what the grass has looked like on the other side... just my two cents

 

[CrazyChickLady64]

Establishing the pecking order...it's inevitable. After doing the see no touch similar to you for a week or two, I then let them hang out together with a bowl of scratch in one hand and a broom in the other. I sprinkle the scratch around to distract them and gentle separate them with the broom with the other should they get aggressive. Once it's clear they have calmed down, I then back out of the run/space and watch from a distance. Any glimmer/shimmer or twinkle of an aggressive encounter, I come back in. Eventually they see the broom as the top of the pecking order...lol... and to be clear, its just used to gently separate them. Last thing I recommend, depending on your set up, is making sure you can still separate them back into their two enclosures at the end of the day (or after 30 minnutes if it's still too intense). This requires closing off the secondary space once you integrate so you can quickly move one group back into the space without having the shew the other group out of it...which is when it gets chaotic. If you dont close off the secondary space to reserve it for separation later, the other group's curiosity will immediately pull them into that enclosure to inspect what the grass has looked like on the other side... just my two cents

Good advice thank you

 

[talkinboutchickens]

What I did to integrate my chickens was put them in a cage and then put the cage in the run, or you could put the cage right next to the run so that the other chickens can watch them.
Make sure that someone is always supervising them for the first couple of days or so.
Your roo might just be curious, my roo pecked the chicks kinda gently (but kinda not because he doesn't know they are fragile ) but he just did it out of curiosity. Does it look like he is intentionally trying to hurt the younger ones?

 

[CrazyChickLady64]

What I did to integrate my chickens was put them in a cage and then put the cage in the run, or you could put the cage right next to the run so that the other chickens can watch them.
Make sure that someone is always supervising them for the first couple of days or so.
Your roo might just be curious, my roo pecked the chicks kinda gently (but kinda not because he doesn't know they are fragile ) but he just did it out of curiosity. Does it look like he is intentionally trying to hurt the younger ones?

No not really he pecked 3 of them just once one right after the other so I separated them. This is my first time with a roo and I wasn't sure of his intentions. Maybe he is just curious. They have been in a see no touch situation for 4 weeks now. I will try again and see how it goes thanks

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

Here is how I do it I create a space the new birds will be safe in. That could be a pen, small coop, kennel etc, then place that in or around were the established flock is. Obviously food, water and cleaning of this smaller enclosure will be needed. However this allows the two groups to see each other, hear and smell each other over a period of a couple weeks (I don’t rush it). I then spend time creating hiding and escape zones if I plan to pen the birds together 24/7 in a confined space. I find the more space the chickens have the less problems tend to happen, so usually I just do a free range release, but you might not want to do that for various reasons. I usually spread the feed around and if necessary put out multiple water stations this helps prevent resource hoarding while the birds work out their pecking order. I have also done a gradual introduction, in which only one new bird is released to the established flock every so many days while the rest stay in the protected enclosure that the established flock can see and hear. The main thing is the new bird has space and places to go or hide while pecking order is established.