Introducing new chicks to last years chickens

[amynw]

Hello! I need some advice and help with the best ways to introduce our new baby chicks to last years chickens. They are about 11 days old now and still inside with me. There are 8 new babies. When is the best time to take them to the coop? When should I allow them to be together in the same area?

 

[TJAnonymous]

Lots of people will chime in....but I can tell you what I did. I kept my chicks in a brooder in the house until they were 4 weeks old. It was really cold outside (single digits) so I didn't take a chance on moving them outside at those temps. At 4 weeks, I moved them into a dog crate inside the coop. This allowed the adults and babies to be introduced to each other without worrying about the babies being bullied. I let them stay in the dog crate for 2 weeks. At 6 weeks, I opened the dog crate and zip tied some hardware cloth up so the babies could get out but the adults couldn't get in the crate. This allowed the babies to come out and explore but a "safe zone" to go back into if they were being bullied. Luckily, none of my adults bullied them at all. Within a few days of the dog crate being opened, the babies were roosting with the adults at night and accepted as part of the flock. I took the dog crate out this weekend after a week because it isn't needed anymore and just taking up space.

 

[amynw]

Lots of people will chime in....but I can tell you what I did. I kept my chicks in a brooder in the house until they were 4 weeks old. It was really cold outside (single digits) so I didn't take a chance on moving them outside at those temps. At 4 weeks, I moved them into a dog crate inside the coop. This allowed the adults and babies to be introduced to each other without worrying about the babies being bullied. I let them stay in the dog crate for 2 weeks. At 6 weeks, I opened the dog crate and zip tied some hardware cloth up so the babies could get out but the adults couldn't get in the crate. This allowed the babies to come out and explore but a "safe zone" to go back into if they were being bullied. Luckily, none of my adults bullied them at all. Within a few days of the dog crate being opened, the babies were roosting with the adults at night and accepted as part of the flock. I took the dog crate out this weekend after a week because it isn't needed anymore and just taking up space.

Thats a great idea. I do have a large dog crate that can be used in the coop. I am perfectly happy with the babies staying inside with me for 2 more weeks Thank you for sharing your process

 

[rosemarythyme]

Hard to say what's "best" given I don't know your climate, your set up, number of birds, etc. But you don't need to wait an extra 2 weeks if you don't want, you can start the see-but-don't touch now if your temperatures are moderate enough to allow for it.

 

[EllieandOlive]

We have done something very similar as the above poster commented! We have puppy pens, and also a large dog crate that we use to seperate different ages of birds in our 2 barn stalls. I've got 4 brooders going currently in my garage with about 35 chicks of differing ages and 12 ducklings. The chicks will all go to the barn in a few weeks when the ones in the larger barn brooder are sold. We keep ducks and chickens together. Everytime I've incorporated chicks into the current flock I watch close but my birds have been very nice so far, they stay in their hatching cliques for sure.

 

[Justicedog]

I don't recall what age I had brought my new chicks outside to the coop. Probably 8 weeks or so. I had some plastic fence left over. I had 5 old hens, in a 4X8 coop. I put hooks in the coop and hooked the plastic fencing so that I'd split the coop in half. I had the old girls on the side with the door to the run and the new girls on the other side. I had to rearrange the food and water and had that on both sides. I don't recall how long I'd had that separated, likely a month. I didn't trust that there would be a hole that the new ones could fit through and the old ones couldn't, so I probably didn't take the barrier down until the new ones were big. But when I took it down, they all seemed fine. I'm intrigued by the dog cage idea. That may be less work. I'm not sure how to manage it so that the the old ones don't poop on the young ones. Maybe I need to figure out a poop board.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I'm intrigued by the dog cage idea. That may be less work. I'm not sure how to manage it so that the the old ones don't poop on the young ones. Maybe I need to figure out a poop board.

If dog crate must sit under roosts (with no poop boards) then a sheet of cardboard ziptied to the top of the crate does well as a temporary poop catcher.