Integrating new chicks with old hens

[Awonderer]

It might be easier to find a new home for the rescues...my neighbor offered to make tamales out of them, but my wife vetoed that idea.

 

[debid]

There were never integrations at my grandma's house. She'd buy chicks in the spring and keep them in a brooder area of the barn. The old hens were stewed to make way for the new juvies (half of them, anyway... cockerels went off to freezer camp). The bantie coop was the only place there were ever babies living with adults and those would be hen-reared.

 

[cafarmgirl]

I tried moving our 6 week olds in with one year olds last night and it did not go well!! Right now I've got them separated with the babies in the coop and the older hens in the run. I wish I had a separate area for them like you have. They have outgrown the brooder and I've got to do something. Thinking I might partition off part of the run (mine's not really big enough for much else) and put the babies in there during the day. My six one year olds are usually pretty calm and don't fight amongst themselves too much, but I put those babies in there and even my favorite hen was attacking them!! I've been on here reading all morning and have seen some suggest it could take 2-3 months for them to get used to each other! I sure hope not!!

I've never had it take quite that long but having a separate area for the new youngsters is the key to easier integration. I raise chicks in a grow-out pen with their own coop/run right alongside the older birds from the time they are 5 weeks old until they are about 10-12 weeks old. Then they are let out with the older birds in the pasture during the day, plenty of room to get away from each other. But after being next to each other all that time integration goes pretty smooth, only mild pecking order scuffles.

 

[Soltaria]

I'm sharing a pasture with my neighbor for our chickens. She has 9 older gals and I have 28 chicklets to integrate. I know every chicken is different and there's no 100% right answer to this question but...
Do y'all think I will have any trouble with the older gals picking on the little ones? They are pretty docile to eachother and I never notice them having any pecking order disputes amongst themselves. Is it likely to change with the new additions? Or...
Is it possible since there are so many chicklets that they might gang up on the older ones?

 

[debid]

I'm sharing a pasture with my neighbor for our chickens. She has 9 older gals and I have 28 chicklets to integrate. I know every chicken is different and there's no 100% right answer to this question but...
Do y'all think I will have any trouble with the older gals picking on the little ones? They are pretty docile to eachother and I never notice them having any pecking order disputes amongst themselves. Is it likely to change with the new additions? Or...
Is it possible since there are so many chicklets that they might gang up on the older ones?

Sharing a pasture and sharing an enclosed sleeping/laying/eating space are very different things. They'll range as two separate groups and (unless one or both groups has roosters) largely ignore each other. It's only when you have to force them to coexist in a confined space that problems can arise.