introducing 4 month old hens

[MCreery]

I'm about to get 3 - 4 month old confirmed Silkie pullets. I currently have 5 hens (no rooster he got re homed after liking some of my hens more than others)....But the new hens will be about 4 months old. I have a second coop and run to put them in. How long do i keep them separated before introducing?
FYI, getting 8 babies in Feb that will need to go in 2nd coop by April 1 st.
thx

 

[CluckerFamily]

Do you already have silkies on top of the ones you will be receiving?

 

[CanadaEh]

you can gradually allow them to commingle by gradually opening a hole in the common fence once every body knows where each others coop is and there is no aggression through the fence. If they are much smaller than your adults I would suggest properly sized panic gates that would allow them youngsters to go to adult's run but not vice versa.

 

[mcdze]

if you got 2 coop setups its not a big deal, the runs should be right next to each other .. they'll get used to each other pretty quick .. if theres a size difference there will 'always' be contention so there needs to be plenty of room .. a group thats small will tend to hang together and the larger ones will dominate, so they need space to avoid each other enough nobodys getting beat up ... probably 2 sets of feeders and waterers seperated well to depending on your setup so they dont all have to cooperate at one station, that will always be a problem to with a size difference ...

 

[rosemarythyme]

Probably 2 weeks or so should do it, then try introducing them (preferably when you have a little time to supervise) in an area with plenty of clutter and spread out feeders so birds can hide from each other if needed, and there's not too much competition for resources.