Integrating young pullets with mature hens - what's the best age?

[lcertuche]

I've heard that a dust bath of wood ashes are good for mites, Years ago before all the natural/organic concern we just held them upside down and sprinkled Sevin dust on them when they would go to roost. I haven't had the need for any control since I got my newest flock. I'm sure the feed stores or Farmer's Coop would have something if DE doesn't work. I've heard there is something you can buy that takes care of mites and intestinal parasites but I don't know what it is called.

 

[chickenlady1150]

Things are going great here in Colorado as far as integration goes.

The littles don't fit thru the escapes anymore and the bigs can fit thru when I open them up so I took the fence down today. So far it's going alright. They are staying to their own ends pretty much and there is food and water on each end as before. The bigs go from one end to the other and when they move the littles go to the other end. The littles aren't as afraid as they used to be so that's good too. The bigs are becoming so accustomed to the littles that there is very little pecking and picking now. During the day they chase the littles occasionally but the littles come right back and continue whatever it was they were doing. The littles are showing more boldness at bedtime as well. There is still 1 RIR that "tries" to keep the littles out of the coop but they just slip in beside her and roost anyway.

The bigs have finally realized that they can't all fit on the top of the ladder roost so the 2 RIR's have started roosting on the bottom rung. The last 2 nights one of the littles has perched herself up there right between them big as you please. If there is a peck I pop them on the head and it quits. The little just sits there as if to say "Make my day". The other 2 littles are still using the side roost and all but 1 of the littles gets up all by themselves. The last one just wonders around the coop looking at the roosts as if she's thinking "Well how do I get up there?" I give her about 5 minutes to do this and then set her up on the side and shut things down.

The only issue I have now is that one of the Austrolorps started laying last week on Thursday and the first egg she laid was perfect. Then I got 2 small pullet sized eggs from her in as many days. The first 3 eggs were laid in a nest box. Then she started laying either no shelled or soft shelled eggs and dropping them from the roost. Two evenings ago I went out and she was hunched over with her tail folded down and looked in pain. I went to pick her up and she never let out a peep or tried to get away. This is one that doesn't like to be caught so I knew then she was not right. I lifted her tail and looked at her vent. It looked a little swollen and wet. I didn't know what to do so I just held and petted her for a while. She eventually got down and went to roost in the coop. About 30 minutes later the rest were in the coop roosting so I went to shut everything down and found a soft shelled and a no shelled egg in the sand underneath her. She looked very relieved and her vent was no longer swollen. Then today she laid another perfect egg. Not sure what to think... So far she is the only one laying. The bigs are 19 weeks old so I anticipate the others to start any time.

I mixed layer feed into the last of the flock raiser on Wednesday last week and they have oyster shell in a small pan attached to the coop support beam. I just filled it again last week so I know they are eating it. I have been giving them the left over pulp from my green juices as well as frozen veg popsicle treats when it's over 90*. It's been in the mid 90's for weeks and shows no sign of subsiding any time soon. Could it be the juice pulp maybe? There is lime pulp in it and I just read the "Chicken Treat Chart" that says not to feed them citrus but it doesn't say why. I did also do some reading here on BYC and several folks suggested a switch to bird seed without corn rather than cracked corn scratch in the summer due to overheating. I picked up some seed and a bag of just sunflower seeds. I mixed them together and added some oatmeal with it. They get about a cup in the mornings to share between all 10 of them. I spread it all over the 30' x 20' run to give them something to scratch at. Could this be what's causing the issue?

My plan moving forward is to stop the juice pulp and popsicle treats and maybe go back to regular scratch but only half a cup. If there are no more soft/no shell eggs then I'll know it's one of those things.

Learning never stops and I'm hoping that this takes care of the issue.

 

[Coop de Grass]

Things are going great here in Colorado as far as integration goes.

The littles don't fit thru the escapes anymore and the bigs can fit thru when I open them up so I took the fence down today. So far it's going alright. They are staying to their own ends pretty much and there is food and water on each end as before. The bigs go from one end to the other and when they move the littles go to the other end. The littles aren't as afraid as they used to be so that's good too. The bigs are becoming so accustomed to the littles that there is very little pecking and picking now. During the day they chase the littles occasionally but the littles come right back and continue whatever it was they were doing. The littles are showing more boldness at bedtime as well. There is still 1 RIR that "tries" to keep the littles out of the coop but they just slip in beside her and roost anyway.

The bigs have finally realized that they can't all fit on the top of the ladder roost so the 2 RIR's have started roosting on the bottom rung. The last 2 nights one of the littles has perched herself up there right between them big as you please. If there is a peck I pop them on the head and it quits. The little just sits there as if to say "Make my day". The other 2 littles are still using the side roost and all but 1 of the littles gets up all by themselves. The last one just wonders around the coop looking at the roosts as if she's thinking "Well how do I get up there?" I give her about 5 minutes to do this and then set her up on the side and shut things down.

The only issue I have now is that one of the Austrolorps started laying last week on Thursday and the first egg she laid was perfect. Then I got 2 small pullet sized eggs from her in as many days. The first 3 eggs were laid in a nest box. Then she started laying either no shelled or soft shelled eggs and dropping them from the roost. Two evenings ago I went out and she was hunched over with her tail folded down and looked in pain. I went to pick her up and she never let out a peep or tried to get away. This is one that doesn't like to be caught so I knew then she was not right. I lifted her tail and looked at her vent. It looked a little swollen and wet. I didn't know what to do so I just held and petted her for a while. She eventually got down and went to roost in the coop. About 30 minutes later the rest were in the coop roosting so I went to shut everything down and found a soft shelled and a no shelled egg in the sand underneath her. She looked very relieved and her vent was no longer swollen. Then today she laid another perfect egg. Not sure what to think... So far she is the only one laying. The bigs are 19 weeks old so I anticipate the others to start any time.

I mixed layer feed into the last of the flock raiser on Wednesday last week and they have oyster shell in a small pan attached to the coop support beam. I just filled it again last week so I know they are eating it. I have been giving them the left over pulp from my green juices as well as frozen veg popsicle treats when it's over 90*. It's been in the mid 90's for weeks and shows no sign of subsiding any time soon. Could it be the juice pulp maybe? There is lime pulp in it and I just read the "Chicken Treat Chart" that says not to feed them citrus but it doesn't say why. I did also do some reading here on BYC and several folks suggested a switch to bird seed without corn rather than cracked corn scratch in the summer due to overheating. I picked up some seed and a bag of just sunflower seeds. I mixed them together and added some oatmeal with it. They get about a cup in the mornings to share between all 10 of them. I spread it all over the 30' x 20' run to give them something to scratch at. Could this be what's causing the issue?

My plan moving forward is to stop the juice pulp and popsicle treats and maybe go back to regular scratch but only half a cup. If there are no more soft/no shell eggs then I'll know it's one of those things.

Learning never stops and I'm hoping that this takes care of the issue.

I've never had a hen laying soft shelled or no shelled eggs, but my Bielefelder hen has laid eggs from the roost twice... not sure how they didn't break, but they didn't!

One of my hens was egg bound this week, and prolapsed, which is how I found out. I gave her warm baths in a dish pan, and then used olive oil to push back the prolapse. That was when I felt the egg. She is now out with the rest of the flock. You can pm me if you want info on any of that.

As far as the soft eggs, and the calcium... My hens like crushed eggshells much better than oyster shell. As part of this latest chicken health experience, I learned that calcium is important for both shell formation and for the contractions that expell the egg and then return everything back to where it belongs. Make sure you keep the calcium dish full - I won't make that mistake again!

 

[Coop de Grass]

I thought I'd post photos of how I am integrating the current 6 week old FBCM chicks. It is always the same idea, this time it is inside the predator proof run... They have been free to go in and out since yesterday.

We have an interior run with roof, that is inside a second run that is not completely predator proof (we are working on that!)
The small coop (way too small for the first flock, but big enough for chicks) is now in the left far corner. The setup is a mish-mash of different parts of different runs. Just enough to keep them contained and sheltered from whatever rain might get to them. It is a bit crowded but the flock is only in that run between the auto door opening at 7:30 and whenever I get down to let them out.



The door to the mini run is to the left of the hanging waterer and is now swung open to the left. In front of the open door is an extra panel that is propped at an angle so that the chicks can get through on both sides to enter and exit. Too small for any of the other birds, including the 12 week olds.
This is behind the door that is open to the left. there is an extra opening where the run has been pushed in with a board at the bottom to hold it there.
Just another view.
The chicks are closed into the coop at night and the both interior and exterior runs are locked.Hopefully, little run will be dismantled by this weekend. The chicks will stay in their own coop until they decided that it is time to go in with the big girls. That is exactly what happened with the 12 week olds.

I've done different versions of this, and it has worked each time I did it.

 

[Chickle2014]

Hi! I have three 2 1/2 year old Orps and three 3 month old mixed breed pullets that we are integrating. They shared the run with a fence between them for 3 or 4 weeks, then we let them mingle for a little while everyday, supervised of course. Everything was going pretty well - a little chasing and pecking but nothing out of the ordinary. Two weeks ago we took the fence down and they have been together ever since. All is good except at night - last night one of the Orps had a pullet pinned into a corner on the top roost and was pecking her. I moved the Orp off the roost and another one took her place. So I moved all the pullets off the top roost onto the lower roost. I know there has been a couple of nights this particular pullet has spent the night in a nesting box. Should I separate them at night, and try integrating again in a couple of weeks? I don't know what to do! I am scared to death my little girl is going to get hurt!

 

[lilapot]

We're sort of thinking about getting some pullets and mixing them with our two hens. Now that I know when,I want to know how.

 

[Coop de Grass]

Hi! I have three 2 1/2 year old Orps and three 3 month old mixed breed pullets that we are integrating. They shared the run with a fence between them for 3 or 4 weeks, then we let them mingle for a little while everyday, supervised of course. Everything was going pretty well - a little chasing and pecking but nothing out of the ordinary. Two weeks ago we took the fence down and they have been together ever since. All is good except at night - last night one of the Orps had a pullet pinned into a corner on the top roost and was pecking her. I moved the Orp off the roost and another one took her place. So I moved all the pullets off the top roost onto the lower roost. I know there has been a couple of nights this particular pullet has spent the night in a nesting box. Should I separate them at night, and try integrating again in a couple of weeks? I don't know what to do! I am scared to death my little girl is going to get hurt!

My 3 13 week olds went into the coop with the big girls on their own. I have a video clip on June 4th where they are sitting in the pop door watching the activity inside. I changed the roost setup shortly after this. The highest roost is at the far end of the coop, directly above the pop door. The two lower roosts are along the left wall and staggered. No one really uses the lowest roost, except to jump to it and then get off of it.I will look for a photo, the place where these 3 roost is so silly - they squish themselves into the space where the higher and lower roosts intersect. They have just enough room to sit there. Somehow, they don't get pooped on.

I would suggest moving the young ones rather than the older hens. Pecking order is everything!

Also, if you block the nesting boxes at night, she will end up on the lower roost. I went through that with another group of pullets.

It's always something!

 

[Chickle2014]

So you think I should move the pullets off the higher roost every. Isn't and put them on the lower roost until things settle down? They go in the coop no problem, it's just gets crazy when they are all in there together. Now they are getting more intimidated out in the yard too, so they are hiding in the coop a lot.

 

[Beekissed]

Hi! I have three 2 1/2 year old Orps and three 3 month old mixed breed pullets that we are integrating. They shared the run with a fence between them for 3 or 4 weeks, then we let them mingle for a little while everyday, supervised of course. Everything was going pretty well - a little chasing and pecking but nothing out of the ordinary. Two weeks ago we took the fence down and they have been together ever since. All is good except at night - last night one of the Orps had a pullet pinned into a corner on the top roost and was pecking her. I moved the Orp off the roost and another one took her place. So I moved all the pullets off the top roost onto the lower roost. I know there has been a couple of nights this particular pullet has spent the night in a nesting box. Should I separate them at night, and try integrating again in a couple of weeks? I don't know what to do! I am scared to death my little girl is going to get hurt!

My advise is to stay out of the coop at roosting time and let them sort it out. It's been that way since the beginning of time and no amount of our worrying or shuffling of birds will sway the pecking order procedure that must take place. Just make sure you have enough space on your roosts for alternate positions and let 'em sort it out.

Later on, after dark, go into the coop and see if that pullet is in the nest box. Evict her if she is and place her on the roost. Keep doing that until she "gets" it. It will all work out beautifully if you just let the chickens do their own social structure.

 

[Chickle2014]

I had been doing that with the minor stuff, but when they had her pinned down and were pecking her I kind of freaked out. Integrating is not for sissies, that's for sure!

Thanks for your help!