Integrating young chicks with older chickens

[Chiron]

Hello all,

I'm struggling to get my older chickens (3 hens about 9 months old) to accept 3 younger chicks (now about 4 months old). I don't have a lot of space so what I had been doing is putting the chickens in the open run area and leaving the older chickens locked in the coop area (has a run as well of about 20 feet square). The outside run isn't as secure so I take the young chicks inside the barn at night. I had been doing this for about a week and then let the adults in with the babies. Watched closely for a couple of hours and everything seemed to be going well - no overt bullying, everyone minding their own business. Left them unsupervised for maybe 20 min and came back out to a dead chick. I have kept everyone separate since and gone back to them being kept beside each other but unable to get to each other for the last couple weeks.
I unfortunately can't keep this up indefinitely as the chicks are outgrowing their pen in the barn and I'd really like to be able to let the adult girls go back to having more space. The chicks are pretty close in size now except for one who is a little smaller. I can't really do free range in my area to give every one more space. My run is about 100 square feet.

Any tricks or tips. I also originally set up a space for the little chicks to escape to that the big chickens didn't fit in but they still somehow managed to corner and kill one of the babies.

 

[Labchick10]

I have 6 chicks hatched on 8-19-20 in with 2 chicks hatched on 7-10-20. I have put up a barrier inside the coop so they can see each other but not touch. We have no accidents. I do let them free range outside every day while being closely watched. The older ones will chase the little ones every once in a while but nothing drastic. I would try the barrier in the coop until the chicks are a 4 to 6 months old. Let them out together and see what happens but be there to intervene if needed. Good Luck!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Any tricks or tips. I also originally set up a space for the little chicks to escape to that the big chickens didn't fit in but they still somehow managed to corner and kill one of the babies.

Any photos of your set up? I want to see what your clutter looks like, and maybe how to improve exits since it sounds like that was an issue.

Unfortunately "panic door" type set ups only work when chicks are very small (like 4 weeks old), and 16 week olds are way too big for that type of set up, so you'll need to go for overall clutter to provide safe space instead of chick-only areas.

 

[Chiron]

Sorry, it took me way too long to get decent pictures. Ignore the dog crate on the dog house. It was just placed there to get it out of the way and isn't being used for anything.
I have been switching the two groups between the actual coop and the space outside the coop but not really letting them interact with each other. Just sharing a fence line. The older chickens are in the picture (the younger ones were in the coop).

 

[rosemarythyme]

Hmm, might find it difficult to do integration in your set up. Ever consider moving your coop out of the run to open up a little extra space? Problem is with how you have it, there's little to no extra floor space to add clutter which would help a lot with providing visual breaks and hiding spots for the younger birds: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-cluttered-run.1323792/

 

[neo71665]

I don't think the coop in the run is the problem but that coop is way too small for 6 birds. Looks like it's barely big enough for 2.

 

[Chiron]

The coop is actually much bigger than it looks in the pictures. Unfortunately, the coop needs to stay in the run because its not super heavy duty (I bought it as one of the commercial ones from tractor supply to use as a temporary deal). My dogs figured out if they bang on the wire hard enough, they can push it in and get to the chickens So it needs to stay in the dog run (which is a about 200 square ft). Right now, I'm switching the two groups of chickens between the being locked in the coop and being in the run that way they all get more space to run.
I'm waiting for the smallest chick to get close to the same size as the older chickens so she at least has a fighting chance. I'm keeping a fair amount of stuff in the run so there will be places to run and hide.

Originally the plan was to let the chickens free range but between the dogs and the predators in the area, that is just not going to be possible.

 

[NatJ]

The coop is actually much bigger than it looks in the pictures.

How big is? Length and width in feet? (The enclosed part, and the "run" part of the coop.)

You say the dog run is 200 square feet--so that means it's 10 feet by 20 feet, right?

Also, where do you live? (US State, or name of country, is accurate enough.) Climate has some effect on how big of a coop is needed.

 

[aart]

The coop is actually much bigger than it looks in the pictures.

It 'looks' like about 2' x 3' to me....so 6sqft....not sure how 6 birds could even fit in there.
The 'coop' is just the enclosed upper part of that coop/run combo.
And I'd guess the dog kennel is 10' x 10'....so 100sqft.
I may be wrong, only a tape measure will tell the true tale.

 

[Mrs. K]

What I would do is flip them around, I would put the littles where you have the bigs, and the bigs where you have the littles. Leave that a couple of days, then I would put ONE of the big girls with the littles, let that settle for two or three days, then add one more. Almost always, there is one hen that just will be mean, keep her by herself as in out of sight of all of them, maybe in that dog crate for a couple of days, then try adding her into the group.

Adding a roost in the run, platforms, pallets leaned up agains the wall, small boxes, or pieces of plywood, and multiple feed dishes that are out of sight of birds eating at another dish can really help chickens get along in a smaller place. Pin-less peepers have helped people keep a bully from pecking others.

The smaller area - makes it much more challenging.

Mrs K