Introducing new chicks to adult flock

[McNugget]

My first hatch of 14 chicks will be 6 weeks old next week. I plan on introducing them to their parents soon. But I'm not sure exactly how to go about it.

Right now, they are in my garage, 7 in the brooder cage and 7 in the large dog crate. I divided them this weekend because it looked a bit croweded. I haven't used the brooder lamp for about 2 weeks now. They are growing like WEEDS! What little hatching down is left should be gone in the next few days to a week.

I want to move them to the chicken run in the next week or so, but both the brooder cage and the dog crate are too big to fit through coop door. I think they will be fine outside in the run confined to the cages during the day, but I really don't want to "lugg" the two cages back and forth on a daily baises. If I cover half of the cages with a tarp to give them wind/rain protection and to give them some shade during the day, and cover them entirely at night, will this be sufficent? Will the chicks and the adults get the necessary introduction exposure this way? How long should I keep the chicks confined during the introduction process?

 

[dntd]

My chicks are 5 weeks and the go outside during the nice days with my bantoms, I would be more worried if they were full size as they do tend to chest bump each other.

 

[BellaLulaFarm]

I had the same questions recently re: when to mix chicks and adults, and the replies ranged from mixing the flock at 7-8 weeks to waiting until they're the same size to put them in with the adults. We mixed the 2 flocks at 7 weeks, and the big hens killed our little roo, terrorized the others, and prevented them from getting food and water. The chicks are now separated again, and will probably remain so for a good long time. Ours were introduced across a fence for a few days first--maybe it wasn't long enough, or maybe our hens are particularly territorial--don't know.

 

[gryeyes]

My 10 or 11 wk old chicks are in a separate coop with attached pen, inside the whole run. They've just finished their second full week out there. I moved my adult chickens from that coop to the new one I just finished, because I wanted the kids to be visible but safe while they got bigger.

The big chickens have gotten over not being allowed into "their old coop" and routinely check out the kids through the hardware cloth pen. At first, when the big chickens would get on top of the pen (it's only two feet tall, with the attached coop only 2.5 feet tall; it was a coop kit I bought on eBay) the little chickens would be terrified. Not any longer.

Here's a photo of one of the adolescent pullets inside the pen, with Carl the rooster just outside it.

I intend to keep the kids in there a few more weeks. There's still quite a bit of size difference between them!