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

[TheSpiceGirls]

Did you provide them oyster shells...and were they eating them?
New pullets had to be coerced into using the shells, by sprinkling just a few on the surface of the feed a couple times, after that no problems.

Yes, I provided oyster shells all the time. And yes they were eating them. But over the course of about 10 days, I transitioned the big hens from layer to chick starter and I guess their systems just never adjusted to telling them to eat MORE oyster shells.

I felt AWFUL losing my sweet little Blue Andalusian. She had the saddest eyes and looked so miserable. We put her down and a necropsy found the egg stuck in her.

I can keep the babies separate till they lay. But I've got Buff Orpingtons which will likely lay around 5-6 months. And then I have 2 Cochins which I've read won't lay till more like 8 months and I hate to keep them separated all that time. I'm wondering if it's safe to transition them to layer at 6 months even though they might not be laying yet.

 

[lazy gardener]

I've put my 13 week old pullets in with the big girls. There are oyster shells out, I'm finishing the bottom of a bag of starter, and then they'll ALL be eating layer, simply because it's cheaper. My roo eats layer, and my cockrels will be eating layer.

 

[crankyyanky1]

I have 4 hens and ended up with 2 roosters I am going to look for a home for one of them but right now I have 2 they are all about 20 weeks I got two 8 week old chicks about 4 weeks ago the chickens free range during the day so I kept the babies in the chicken yard and put them in a dog coop at night inside their coop. I tried to integrate after about a week well my normally sweet and shy girls turned to monsters and attacked so I waited another week again a attack now another week one of the rooster went in and got ahold of one of their wings and tried to pull it off I separated them again and now I am going to try again tom. but I am at my wits end at night I open their pen up and the babies are in a wire dog cage so they see them I am not sure how much pecking i should allow and when do I step in, I knew it wouldn't be easy but never dreamed this would be this hard!!

 

[Beekissed]

How do you keep the hens eating the right food?

I have my big girls on layer ration. The babies are still eating chick starter (non-medicated).

I read that the babies shouldn't eat layer till they are close to the point of lay which won't be till closer to 6 months. Do I keep them separated that entire time?

Lot's of things out there to read, so I'll give you another. In the end it doesn't really matter what you feed....I've been feeding layer to all birds for years upon years.

 

[mamak]

It's good I stumbled upon this thread ala Facebook. I've raised chickens multiple times but never had to integrate flocks. I have 8 two year old hens (third summer--4 red sex links, 4 black sex links) in a coop building (10x15) with an attached hoop coop (8x16). There are also 4 8.5 week old Golden Buff Littles. The Littles spent the first 4-5 weeks in a cage in the garage with a mama heating pad set up. We moved their cage (similar in size to a large dog kennel) into the hoop coop 4 weeks ago so they could start to get familiar with each other. Over the past 2-3 weeks, I have let the Littles out to see if they were ready to be together. Each time, it was clear the Bigs were NOT interested in playing nice, especially one of the red sex-links. Because the Littles were quickly outgrowing their crate, we divided the hoop coop with a 4' fence. Bad move. One of the Littles somehow got on top of the crate (3' tall)--which I never in a million years thought they could do yet--and she apparently jumped to the top of the fence and went over into the pen with the Bigs. This all happened at the early part of the morning and we had no idea there was a problem. The Little Miss could not get back out of the pen and the Bigs went after her in a big way, especially the red one. I realized there was a problem while just admiring them through binoculars from the house. I haven't moved that fast in a long time!!!! Unfortunately, my poor Little is now missing all the feathers and skin from the entire back of her head. She is being doctored and kept in a cage in the garage these past 3 days and is eating, perching, pooping, and doing all things chickens do so I'm hopeful she will recover. The dividing fence is of course floor to ceiling now. That dadgum red hen paces along the divider fence just itching to get at the other 3 Littles. We don't know what to do now to integrate...or if they can be integrated. On top of that, there are 3 Littles growing as pets at a friends' house that are supposed to come live here in the fall (same exact age as my Littles) so we're going to have to do the whole integration thing yet again. I have tried squirting the Bigs with water but it's not making much difference. The options seem to be to cull the flock of Bigs (getting 4-5 eggs daily) including the mean red mama, get rid of the Bigs completely, or ______....

Other than our major mistake of the too short fence, I feel like I've done things as near to 'correctly' as I could have...other than getting the chicks down to the hoop at a younger age; but that was something I needed help with, and beggers can't be choosers on timing sometimes. I need to read further into this thread to see what pearls of wisdom lay inside but wanted to put our story of sorrow out there to get some possible suggestions and to warn others that it's a challenging feat. Thanks!

 

[MelCarrion]

We just introduce ours this past weekend July 10 they are about 9 weeks - We make sure they were in an enclosed area since the young ones can still fly. We tried to introduce one and all 3 went after her so we decided to just let all lose and watched them of course the old showed some dominance right away and did some chasing around since we release 9 at the same time the pecking went only for about 2 minutes and yes we had to intervene the young vs the old was real. After about 30 minutes everyone settle. I left the both coops for their sleeping quarters until they get to know each other better then closing the little and let them introduce themselves to the main house..So far things are going fine.

 

[Coop de Grass]

Yes, I provided oyster shells all the time. And yes they were eating them. But over the course of about 10 days, I transitioned the big hens from layer to chick starter and I guess their systems just never adjusted to telling them to eat MORE oyster shells.

I felt AWFUL losing my sweet little Blue Andalusian. She had the saddest eyes and looked so miserable. We put her down and a necropsy found the egg stuck in her.

I can keep the babies separate till they lay. But I've got Buff Orpingtons which will likely lay around 5-6 months. And then I have 2 Cochins which I've read won't lay till more like 8 months and I hate to keep them separated all that time. I'm wondering if it's safe to transition them to layer at 6 months even though they might not be laying yet.

I've had all the birds on starter/grower for about 20 weeks because I've been integrating chicks for that amount of time. I've been good about providing the extra calcium, until last week. I provide crushed eggshells free choice to the girls, which they like much better than oyster shell. Last week, I didn't pay attention to the eggshells while I was obsessed with battling the heat. The result was a hen with prolapsed vent. At first I thought that was all it was, but in the process of doing the warm soaks and pushing back the prolapse, I discovered the egg. There were two on two consecutive days. The prolapse has resolved itself and I am going to check her today before letting her back out. She is constantly grumbling about being in the family room.

Calcium, Calcium, Calcium and hydration hydration, hydration, especially in the heat. Calcium when feeding only starter/grower. The calcium not only provides good shells, it also helps with contractions that push the egg out, and then close the passage back up.

 

[unbaked pegga]

I just got this crele orpington yesterday.. my other 3 orpingtons screeched in protest all day long until we were all exhausted. This hen I much smaller than the other 3 when I got them. I think it will be awhile before I can let her out. I have enclosed a pic that shows the disparity in size. Also she is bald on her flanks. I don't know if the 2nd picture will show that but it is worrisome to me. I can't understand why there are no feathers. I contacted the hatcherie but they said that was not abnormal.(?) Does anyone have any ideas why she has no feathers?

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[lcertuche]

I just got this crele orpington yesterday.. my other 3 orpingtons screeched in protest all day long until we were all exhausted. This hen I much smaller than the other 3 when I got them. I think it will be awhile before I can let her out. I have enclosed a pic that shows the disparity in size. Also she is bald on her flanks. I don't know if the 2nd picture will show that but it is worrisome to me. I can't understand why there are no feathers. I contacted the hatcherie but they said that was not abnormal.(?) Does anyone have any ideas why she has no feathers?

[/URL]

I would imagine it is molting. Is she a hen or pullet. If still a pullet she may just be going through another feather exchange. Mine are 15-weeks and 7-weeks and they have been through several. They can get pretty rough looking during these stages. The other thing I would check is for mites. I once had a chicken that just stayed pretty much bald. I couldn't see mites but finally I treated him and the rest of the flock and his feathers grew back after months of bald spots. Since she is new you might consider it as a preventive measure to the rest of the flock.

 

[unbaked pegga]

I just put food grade diatomaceous earth in her bedding. And she steps on it and nestles down into it. Is there something else I should do?