Integration new additons: barrier or sneak 'em onto the roost in the dark?

[My1stChickens]

Try the sneak 'em in, but be ready to do the barrier.
Hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst.

I like @Mrs. K's idea as an in between technique,
because 'homing' the new birds to the coop is essential.
Definitely want some 'hide outs'....both inside coop and outside.

Do you keep feed/water inside coop? Yes to both during bad weather.
Is yard fenced to keep chickens in? Yes, and to keep predators out. The entire yard is no climb fence covered in hardware cloth that's trenched into ground and set in concrete.

If it all goes sideways, you do have the tractor that could be put into the 'yard'. Yes, I have two tractors. One I'm using for quarantine, the other is still in the existing hens' yard. I could drag their existing coop back into the existing hens' yard and set them up that way. The only issue would be eventually transitioning them to the big coop. Though maybe once they were all one flock, they would naturally start following the others to the big girl coop. I think I'm liking this idea!!!

 

[aart]

You have several options to play with, stay flexible.
Best of cLuck!

If you plan on adding more birds in the future, the splitting of coop and run, and addition of a second pop door, may well be worth the time and effort.
It surely has assisted my yearly brooding and integrating chicks.

Would love to see pics of your set up.....

...Where in this world are you located?
Climate is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, (laptop version shown), then it's always there!

 

[Ridgerunner]

My1stChickens, You are dealing with living animals. Either way might work, either way might fail. Some are more work than others but may be safer.

I grew up on a small farm out in the country. We kept a flock of free range chickens. Many of my relatives and neighbors kept a flock of free range chickens. The standard way to integrate new chickens was to take them to the hen house in the middle of the day and turn them loose. The existing flock might sleep in the hen house, a barn, in trees, or maybe some in all three. The new chickens might sleep in any one place or all three. Most laid in the hen house but some hid nests. One of my chores as a kid was to try to find those hidden nests. The chickens were allowed to manage their own pecking order or dominance issues without interference

Age of the chickens didn't matter. Dad got a dozen chicks from the Co-op a few times and raised them in a cardboard box on the back porch. When they were about three weeks old he turned them loose during the day (usually in the morning) at the hen house. That was the end of his integration efforts. I remember him raising Dominique and New Hampshire this way. They were on their own. If chickens were adolescent or older that was the way it was done, with Dad, relatives, or neighbors.

Expectations were different. Chickens were livestock, not pets. Nobody wants to lose livestock. Livestock has value, as poor as we and the neighbors were we sure did not want to lose any. Many people on here would be shocked at how few the actual loses were with the main flock, let alone with integration.

Very few of us on here, including me, have the conditions where they can totally free range or live where predators have been managed for a century or more. Predators were not that bad, but anything that was a potential predator was quickly eliminated.

Having grown up with this plus observing mine when I kept them in more confined space is why I'm convinced how much room they have is extremely important in integration. We generally don't have enough room for them to stay away from each other until they get to know each other. We want them to all sleep together, often in tight spaces. We want them to all lay in the nests. We don't want them to fight and settle their own social issues. Our expectations are different, our conditions are different. Our management techniques are different.

Sometimes just turning them loose will still work even in less than perfect conditions. But we have developed techniques that improve the odds of it working to our expectations. We house them side by side for a while. We try to imprint the coop on them as a place to roost and lay. We provide them ways to hide from each other or get away from each other. We provide separate feeding and watering stations to reduce potential conflict.

You can try just turning them loose, either during the day or putting them in the coop at night. It might work. But observe and be prepared to try something different if it doesn't. Good luck!

 

[ShannonR]

My1stChickens, You are dealing with living animals. Either way might work, either way might fail. Some are more work than others but may be safer.

I grew up on a small farm out in the country. We kept a flock of free range chickens. Many of my relatives and neighbors kept a flock of free range chickens. The standard way to integrate new chickens was to take them to the hen house in the middle of the day and turn them loose. The existing flock might sleep in the hen house, a barn, in trees, or maybe some in all three. The new chickens might sleep in any one place or all three. Most laid in the hen house but some hid nests. One of my chores as a kid was to try to find those hidden nests. The chickens were allowed to manage their own pecking order or dominance issues without interference

Age of the chickens didn't matter. Dad got a dozen chicks from the Co-op a few times and raised them in a cardboard box on the back porch. When they were about three weeks old he turned them loose during the day (usually in the morning) at the hen house. That was the end of his integration efforts. I remember him raising Dominique and New Hampshire this way. They were on their own. If chickens were adolescent or older that was the way it was done, with Dad, relatives, or neighbors.

Expectations were different. Chickens were livestock, not pets. Nobody wants to lose livestock. Livestock has value, as poor as we and the neighbors were we sure did not want to lose any. Many people on here would be shocked at how few the actual loses were with the main flock, let alone with integration.

Very few of us on here, including me, have the conditions where they can totally free range or live where predators have been managed for a century or more. Predators were not that bad, but anything that was a potential predator was quickly eliminated.

Having grown up with this plus observing mine when I kept them in more confined space is why I'm convinced how much room they have is extremely important in integration. We generally don't have enough room for them to stay away from each other until they get to know each other. We want them to all sleep together, often in tight spaces. We want them to all lay in the nests. We don't want them to fight and settle their own social issues. Our expectations are different, our conditions are different. Our management techniques are different.

Sometimes just turning them loose will still work even in less than perfect conditions. But we have developed techniques that improve the odds of it working to our expectations. We house them side by side for a while. We try to imprint the coop on them as a place to roost and lay. We provide them ways to hide from each other or get away from each other. We provide separate feeding and watering stations to reduce potential conflict.

You can try just turning them loose, either during the day or putting them in the coop at night. It might work. But observe and be prepared to try something different if it doesn't. Good luck!

This was a great post, thank you!

 

[My1stChickens]

My1stChickens, You are dealing with living animals. Either way might work, either way might fail. Some are more work than others but may be safer.

I grew up on a small farm out in the country. We kept a flock of free range chickens. Many of my relatives and neighbors kept a flock of free range chickens. The standard way to integrate new chickens was to take them to the hen house in the middle of the day and turn them loose. The existing flock might sleep in the hen house, a barn, in trees, or maybe some in all three. The new chickens might sleep in any one place or all three. Most laid in the hen house but some hid nests. One of my chores as a kid was to try to find those hidden nests. The chickens were allowed to manage their own pecking order or dominance issues without interference

Age of the chickens didn't matter. Dad got a dozen chicks from the Co-op a few times and raised them in a cardboard box on the back porch. When they were about three weeks old he turned them loose during the day (usually in the morning) at the hen house. That was the end of his integration efforts. I remember him raising Dominique and New Hampshire this way. They were on their own. If chickens were adolescent or older that was the way it was done, with Dad, relatives, or neighbors.

Expectations were different. Chickens were livestock, not pets. Nobody wants to lose livestock. Livestock has value, as poor as we and the neighbors were we sure did not want to lose any. Many people on here would be shocked at how few the actual loses were with the main flock, let alone with integration.

Very few of us on here, including me, have the conditions where they can totally free range or live where predators have been managed for a century or more. Predators were not that bad, but anything that was a potential predator was quickly eliminated.

Having grown up with this plus observing mine when I kept them in more confined space is why I'm convinced how much room they have is extremely important in integration. We generally don't have enough room for them to stay away from each other until they get to know each other. We want them to all sleep together, often in tight spaces. We want them to all lay in the nests. We don't want them to fight and settle their own social issues. Our expectations are different, our conditions are different. Our management techniques are different.

Sometimes just turning them loose will still work even in less than perfect conditions. But we have developed techniques that improve the odds of it working to our expectations. We house them side by side for a while. We try to imprint the coop on them as a place to roost and lay. We provide them ways to hide from each other or get away from each other. We provide separate feeding and watering stations to reduce potential conflict.

You can try just turning them loose, either during the day or putting them in the coop at night. It might work. But observe and be prepared to try something different if it doesn't. Good luck!

Thank you, this is such good perspective. One of my bad qualities is that I can feel overly responsible for their well being since I'm pretty much all they have. But in the end, they are chickens.

 

[My1stChickens]

You have several options to play with, stay flexible.
Best of cLuck!

If you plan on adding more birds in the future, the splitting of coop and run, and addition of a second pop door, may well be worth the time and effort.
It surely has assisted my yearly brooding and integrating chicks.

Would love to see pics of your set up.....

...Where in this world are you located?
Climate is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, (laptop version shown), then it's always there!
View attachment 1624192

Thanks aart, I added my location-- Texas. We've got some cold nights coming up before the year ends (and by cold I mean 30). I always try to avoid doubling up on stressors, so won't integrate when nasty weather is predicted.

I doubt I'll ever add more but I do have some portable fence options that I current use for the quarantine coop that can be used to create a pen within the pen. The more I think about it, the more I'm inclined to just drag the tractor they use now, back to the main pen.... and add on some extra space for daytime. Once they are all co-mingled during the day, I could lock them out of the little tractor coop, and I bet they'd go in the big coop come dark.

 

[scrambled please]

Did you carry the new girls back to their own coop each night at dusk while they were in the dog crate? With 5 I would need something bigger than a dog crate, for sure.

I have a big crate, accutually several different sizes. It only takes a couple days for
them to get used to each other. I have carried them, depends on the coop.
What did you end up doing? It always seems to workout.

 

[scrambled please]

Thanks aart, I added my location-- Texas. We've got some cold nights coming up before the year ends (and by cold I mean 30). I always try to avoid doubling up on stressors, so won't integrate when nasty weather is predicted.

I doubt I'll ever add more but I do have some portable fence options that I current use for the quarantine coop that can be used to create a pen within the pen. The more I think about it, the more I'm inclined to just drag the tractor they use now, back to the main pen.... and add on some extra space for daytime. Once they are all co-mingled during the day, I could lock them out of the little tractor coop, and I bet they'd go in the big coop come dark.

That’s it!

 

[Deblett]

I have one 10 month gold lace Wyandotte chicken left after a fox attack, she has been on her own now for about 3 weeks, 1st week she was injured but fortunately seems to have made a full recovery. I bought two 4 month old Mill fleurs and two 6 month old blue lace who have been living together in quarantine and am now ready to introduce them to the original (Victoria). As she is the original and is still in the main coop, would it be OK to just put the other 4 straight in with her and let them get on with it? There is plenty of room and 2 different roosts.

 

[ShannonR]

I have one 10 month gold lace Wyandotte chicken left after a fox attack, she has been on her own now for about 3 weeks, 1st week she was injured but fortunately seems to have made a full recovery. I bought two 4 month old Mill fleurs and two 6 month old blue lace who have been living together in quarantine and am now ready to introduce them to the original (Victoria). As she is the original and is still in the main coop, would it be OK to just put the other 4 straight in with her and let them get on with it? There is plenty of room and 2 different roosts.

I would like to tell you sure, no problem. But integrating a single chicken as opposed to a group can sometimes be tough on the bird. A single bird may or may not be picked on more than a group.