Integrating my new chicks into flock

[Jlkmommy]

OK, thanks for all your help! We have had a coyote attack. I was able to scare the coyote off and the hen got away with just all of her tail feathers missing. I nursed her back in the quarantine pen and she made a full recovery. There is currently a German Shepherd that has killed several of my neighbor's ginneas, and I have seen him on my property several times. We have a few Cooper and red tip hawks, but they haven't bothered them yet. An owl swooped down once and tried but missed. They are aware of the arial predators and we have a trailer and UTV out there for them to run under and lots of trees to hide under. They run when they are out in the open so they'll stay covered for the most part. I worry a smaller pullet without street sense would get picked off quickly, and of course we get so attached to them since we raise them from week one.

 

[EIEIO Funny Farm]

Thank you for the help. i did cover the light source up from the attic of the coop to make it darker and I also provided 2 darker nesting boxes I bought a TS. That really solved the mystery of why 11 hens all laid in the corner. I have read through your response and the other links, so I just want to clarify. bring the dog crate I am brooding the chicks in out to the run and replace the opening with a cardboard door with chick sized escape holes, keep the chicks in the run during the day and provide a lot of clutter in the run. Bring the chicks into the coup at night in the kennel. Correct? Only problem with that method is we live in the country and there are alot of predators so we don’t want our young chicks to free range until they are 6 months old. Not sure how to accomplish that when we let the current flock put to free range at noon each day and they come through the open run door to get to the coop to go lay.

I love it!

Beautiful set up! Love the light in your coop - but that might be the reason they are laying in the dark corner.

I like my chicks and hens to work out integration on their own hook. I put my chicks in a dog crate at night, put the crate in the coop at night. Then the first few days, I put my chicks in a safety zone in the run. It is fenced so that chicks can get into it easily, but hens cannot follow them. Away from the safety zone - I set up a pallet, up on low bricks, another place where chicks can escape to, but hens can't follow them.

Then I let the hens out, lock the chicks in the run. I sit down there with my cup of coffee and wait until a chick gets brave enough to come out of the safety zone, and I give a mock chase back to the safety zone. They figure it out pretty quick. I let the hens in late in the day. Watching carefully for a bit. I want the chicks to venture out, escape back to safety, learning to respect the hens, but not letting the hens kill them. The hens get used to them pretty quick.

Then I just leave the dog crate in the safety zone, and after one or two times, they just go into it near dark, I carry it in to the coop. Once I see the chicks out and about among the hens I no longer lock them in the crate. I just leave the crate open, and generally by the time I get down to them, they are out and about. After a day or two, they find their way back into the coop into the crate by themselves.

I have a lot of hideouts - which I really don't see in your run. If you look, you will see that a hen can really see every other bird 100% of the time. You would do better to add more clutter to the run. This lets birds get out of sight and out of mind of the other birds, and makes more use of the vertical space in the run.

I posted a post on cluttered runs, and people posted all kinds of runs that had clutter if you want some ideas. Also, clutter allows you to put out feed in one spot, so that a bird eating at another sight cannot see that bird eating. Helps a lot.

Mrs K