Integrating new chicks to a flock

[Stephanie8806]

Okay, so I know there’s a lot of stuff out there about integrating birds, a ton of different techniques, and that a lot of people adhere to different timelines. I’d love to list my plan below and get feedback from this community, as well as hear what was successful or disastrous for you! We are going to be getting our new chicks sometime in April, so I still have time to make adjustments to my plans

I currently have 9 girls that will be a year old at the end of March. We will be adding 15 new chickens this year to bring our flock to 24. I am going to try my hand at hatching a dozen fertilized eggs, and then once they hatch run to the farm supply store and buy some hatchery chicks to round out our desired numbers.

We will brood them indoors, in an unused bathroom for 2-4 weeks. Then they will be moved to a small brooding coop outdoors that will still have a heat lamp for a few weeks. The coop will be elevated with access to bare ground underneath, giving the new chickens indoor and outdoor accommodations. Their run will be attached to the side of our existing run. The new chickens and existing flock will be able to see each other and check each other out through the fencing, but will not have direct access to each other.

At about 8 weeks of age, I’m planning to try letting them out to free range together with the adults, under supervision. If a week goes by and there are no problems, I will let them be unsupervised. I am thinking that eventually, they will join up with the existing flock when they are ready and start putting themselves to sleep in the big coop. If there are any problems overnight, I will move the pullets back into their brooding coop until they are a bit bigger... but I am hoping to have the flock integrated by around 10-12 weeks.

Our big run and coop was designed to accommodate 24 chickens so space shouldn’t be an issue. Especially since they free range during the day.

Soooo, what do you guys think? Does it sound like an alright plan? It’s my first time integrating so I will be paying very close attention to the adult chicken behaviors. I am trying to go into this with a flexible mindset, and make the integration as gentle and natural as possible.

 

[Stephanie8806]

I will also add:

Our main run is approximately 17’x26’. The coop is elevated and inside the run. The run is graded(to be terraced in the spring) and I have several obstacles to accommodate breaking the line of sight... roosts, Aframes, a tunnel made of half buried tires, not to mention the coop itself which is about a foot off the ground on the uphill side, and 3 feet off the ground on the downhill. AND when we trim giant branches off pine trees on our 20 acres, I drape them over roosts and other structures to provide more hidey holes(not to mention pine needle snacks).

During integration time, the weather is going to be excellent and the hawks are not migrating. We generally let them out to free range around 7 or 8 am, and then close their run door about half an hour before dark. They are all usually gathered in the run or even in the roosts by then anyways. The only days we don’t let them out every day are days we are out of town... but we have neighbors who check on them for us, and before leaving I always shake up the run by moving things around and putting fresh branches in. I also usually leave them a big pile of apples to keep them entertained. But we wouldn’t plan to leave go anywhere until integration was successful so that wouldn’t be an issue.

And during the winter, when we have more nasty weather and the girls opt to stay in their run most of the day(even though they do brave the snow to scratch in the bare spots under big trees), we won’t have the whole flock of 24. We raise our birds for a dual purpose, so the run will only have to accommodate 12-16 chickens over winter

I hope that answers any questions there might be regarding space/accommodations in the main run.

 

[aart]

How big is the coop, in feet by feet?
Dimensions and pics would help.

I, and many others, have found that integrating chicks while young is far easier than older.
Takes some work to set it up, but well worth the effort.
Here's 3 setups, mine and 2 others linked near top, to do that:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/integrating-new-birds-at-4-weeks-old.72603/

 

[Stephanie8806]

How big is the coop, in feet by feet?
Dimensions and pics would help.

I, and many others, have found that integrating chicks while young is far easier than older.
Takes some work to set it up, but well worth the effort.
Here's 3 setups, mine and 2 others linked near top, to do that:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/integrating-new-birds-at-4-weeks-old.72603/

My coop floor print is 8x10... 6 feet tall on the short side, 8 on the tall side. Roosts are raised and over poop boards. I don’t have any pictures right now.

Thank you for sharing the article, I will check it out! My concern currently is that I designed my coop with adult birds in mind... the layout could make it very difficult to segregate younger birds or safely add supplemental heat for the younger ones.

I had a plan formed for being able to segregate a brooding mama that maybe hatched a few chicks, up to 8, But not 15...

I thought it might be easier to have all the chicks the same age, but do you think it might be better to space them out? Because with the current plan of hatching some and getting some live, I could certainly do that.... I’m just hesitant to do it that way, because I thought having two developmental ages would be easier to manage than three. And, I thought, there might be a “safety in numbers” factor.

 

[ThatTeowonna]

Your plan sounds good. I hope all goes well. I would suggest, as demonstrated in @aart's article, to start them outside in a MHP. It is very safe and the chicks would get accustomed to their new surroundings quicker. Also, the bigger chicks will see them from day one but can't get to them. I would think that would make the integration process even easier. I'm using the MHP method to brood chicks now. It is going VERY well.

 

[Stephanie8806]

Your plan sounds good. I hope all goes well. I would suggest, as demonstrated in @aart's article, to start them outside in a MHP. It is very safe and the chicks would get accustomed to their new surroundings quicker. Also, the bigger chicks will see them from day one but can't get to them. I would think that would make the integration process even easier. I'm using the MHP method to brood chicks now. It is going VERY well.

Thank you! I was considering some type of heat plate instead of a light... my issue is that my coop is off grid and nearly 300 feet from the house. Later this year we plan to get a junction box ran up there, but in the meantime brooding them from day 1 up there means about 3 extension cords... and we already had an issue with that plan, and keeping water defrosted. Either one of our cords went bad or they came apart somehow(they are buried under 3 feet of snow), but either way the cords aren’t supplying water to the bucket heater and I need to haul water. Both the outlet and the heater work still so it’s a cord issue. I’m a bit worried about that overall for giving chicks heat... but I’d be less worries if they were at least 4 weeks old...
Maybe if I bring a dog crate up into the coop so the chicks can have field trips and get aquatinted from the get go? Then the heat would only need to be temporary in the main coop?

 

[ThatTeowonna]

I understand! With a heat lamp or MHP, you definitely have to keep an eye out for electrical issues. My MHP has a red 'on' indicator. I log onto my Blink chicken coop spy cam several times a day just to make sure it is still on.

Thank you! I was considering some type of heat plate instead of a light... my issue is that my coop is off grid and nearly 300 feet from the house. Later this year we plan to get a junction box ran up there, but in the meantime brooding them from day 1 up there means about 3 extension cords... and we already had an issue with that plan, and keeping water defrosted. Either one of our cords went bad or they came apart somehow(they are buried under 3 feet of snow), but either way the cords aren’t supplying water to the bucket heater and I need to haul water. Both the outlet and the heater work still so it’s a cord issue. I’m a bit worried about that overall for giving chicks heat... but I’d be less worries if they were at least 4 weeks old...
Maybe if I bring a dog crate up into the coop so the chicks can have field trips and get aquatinted from the get go? Then the heat would only need to be temporary in the main coop?

 

[Stephanie8806]

I understand! With a heat lamp or MHP, you definitely have to keep an eye out for electrical issues. My MHP has a red 'on' indicator. I log onto my Blink chicken coop spy cam several times a day just to make sure it is still on.

Two of the extension cords I have have lighted ends and in the dark I’m able to see them from my house... that’s how I knew they weren’t supplying power! I’m hoping it’s just that they got disconnected or something or that only one of the three malfunctioned, because I got heavy duty ones and they were expensive

I love the idea of a spy cam!!! But we also don’t get WiFi here so I don’t think I could use that

 

[Ridgerunner]

At about 8 weeks of age, I’m planning to try letting them out to free range together with the adults, under supervision. If a week goes by and there are no problems, I will let them be unsupervised. I am thinking that eventually, they will join up with the existing flock when they are ready and start putting themselves to sleep in the big coop.

The plan sounds very good but I have a few comments. Occasionally mine will move themselves to the main coop but not often when I house them like that. Usually I have to move them. I generally wait until they have been roaming OK together for about a month and then move them in at night. I just toss them on the coop floor and lock the door after it is so dark they can't see each other. Then I'm down there every day at daybreak to let them out until I'm sure there won't be any disasters with them locked in in that coop together. That's always been just one or two mornings for me but I still do it out of an abundance of caution. Each batch is different.

I lock the old coop so they can't go back in there at night. Sometimes they immediately start going to bed in the big coop, sometimes they try to sleep next to the old coop. I consistently lock them in the main coop after dark until they get the message. Sometimes it takes me three weeks to get them to put themselves to bed in the grow-out coop but converting them to the main coop is usually pretty easy. I often move mine to the main coop at about 12 weeks.

My chicks tend to not sleep with the adults on the main roosts until they get a lot older. This might depend a lot on what your roosts look like. So they look for a safe place to sleep that is not the main roosts. Sometimes that was on the coop floor, which I'm OK with. But sometimes that was the nests which I'm not OK with. I was able to put a juvenile roost lower than the main roosts, horizontally separated from the main roosts by a few feet, and higher than the nests. If yours start sleeping in the nests you might want to remember this.

You mention free range but then talk about that run. I'm not quite sure what is going on with that. I'd consider making that Grow-Out Coop a permanent coop with a section of run permanently associated with it. Put a human door (or gate) between the two runs that you can open or close as you wish. That gives you more flexibility when integrating chicks but also gives you a permanent place you always have available for a broody hen, integrating chicks in the future, isolating an injured chicken, or using it as a bachelor pad. It also would increase your run space when the gate is open. My set-up is like that, I really appreciate the extra flexibility something like that gives me.

 

[Stephanie8806]

At about 8 weeks of age, I’m planning to try letting them out to free range together with the adults, under supervision. If a week goes by and there are no problems, I will let them be unsupervised. I am thinking that eventually, they will join up with the existing flock when they are ready and start putting themselves to sleep in the big coop.

The plan sounds very good but I have a few comments. Occasionally mine will move themselves to the main coop but not often when I house them like that. Usually I have to move them. I generally wait until they have been roaming OK together for about a month and then move them in at night. I just toss them on the coop floor and lock the door after it is so dark they can't see each other. Then I'm down there every day at daybreak to let them out until I'm sure there won't be any disasters with them locked in in that coop together. That's always been just one or two mornings for me but I still do it out of an abundance of caution. Each batch is different.

I lock the old coop so they can't go back in there at night. Sometimes they immediately start going to bed in the big coop, sometimes they try to sleep next to the old coop. I consistently lock them in the main coop after dark until they get the message. Sometimes it takes me three weeks to get them to put themselves to bed in the grow-out coop but converting them to the main coop is usually pretty easy. I often move mine to the main coop at about 12 weeks.

My chicks tend to not sleep with the adults on the main roosts until they get a lot older. This might depend a lot on what your roosts look like. So they look for a safe place to sleep that is not the main roosts. Sometimes that was on the coop floor, which I'm OK with. But sometimes that was the nests which I'm not OK with. I was able to put a juvenile roost lower than the main roosts, horizontally separated from the main roosts by a few feet, and higher than the nests. If yours start sleeping in the nests you might want to remember this.

You mention free range but then talk about that run. I'm not quite sure what is going on with that. I'd consider making that Grow-Out Coop a permanent coop with a section of run permanently associated with it. Put a human door (or gate) between the two runs that you can open or close as you wish. That gives you more flexibility when integrating chicks but also gives you a permanent place you always have available for a broody hen, integrating chicks in the future, isolating an injured chicken, or using it as a bachelor pad. It also would increase your run space when the gate is open. My set-up is like that, I really appreciate the extra flexibility something like that gives me.

Thank you for your response! That’s very good insight, about the new pullets maybe needing to be placed inside the coop manually. I will keep that in mind! I will also put together a plan for a separate roost for the newer chickens. Our current ones are staggered in height, but not as far apart as you suggest.

As far as the rest of your suggestions, my plan was more in line than what my original post specified... yes, the brooding coop will be built directly off the side of the existing run. The fence will not be taken down, and will be the 4th side to the enclosure. The other three sides will be built out from there. I plan to install a small chicken door in the existing fence, between the two runs, that will be kept closed until I start the intermingling process.

I also planned, once the flock was integrated, to clean the brooding coop thoroughly and keep it closed. That allows the ground in the small run to recover from scratching so that there’s always vegetation for its temporary residents. I could even put down fresh grass seed or sow edible plants in there and the seeds wouldn’t be disturbed. This also will keep the mini coop environment pretty sterile, in the event that a sick or injured chicken need to move in, but also in the event that I get a broody mama that wants to sit. The ground space will be about 25 square feet(although to air on the side of caution, I might make it closer to 35 or 40 square feet) plus the elevated mini coop. More than enough space for chicks to grow out, or should suffice for temporary lodging for one or two adult chickens if necessary.

And I’m assuming we’ll get a rooster or two during our hatch, or even in subsequent hatches. So if the rooster(s) won’t stop harassing hens in the main coop, it could serve as an interim coop for the boy(s) while we plan/build a bachelor pad.

I try to plan as many things to be multi-purpose as I can, and already messed up by not making my main coop bigger so that I could have more options. Hoping this little coop fixes that problem by being my “option”!