I recently ordered chicks in the mail. I will keep them inside until they are feathered but how do i introduce them to my 6 other banties that are about 5 months old?
Wait til they are older and closer to the same size. Then try to introduce them at night. Or keep them in a cage where your older chickens are so they can get used to them without hurting them.
I give the new flock and the old flock a little time together each day, increasing it little by little each day, depending on how peacefully they are getting along. Have the new ones sleep in a separate area, so there won't be any bullying in the morning before you are there to supervise. I do not keep them together round the clock until the new ones are adult size, and by that time the young and old ones are well matched and used to each other. You might be able to merge them into one flock sooner than that, if your new ones are standard sized. They might be as big as the banties by the time they are 6 wks old, or so.
I have 2 coops actually 3 but for this thread only 2 count. My older ones are in the main coop, I have 12 layers and a rooster. In the grow out copp I have young ones of various ages. They range from 18 weeks to 10 weeks. They have their own run and the older ones free range in a fenced in yard. Today after work I let them out to free range with the older ones for awhile. Things went pretty well. My little Polish cockrel Einstein was all over the yard. The others stayed close to their coop. very little pecking. I had them out about an hour. Tomorrow I will do the same only increase the time. I was amazed though that no one pecked at my 2 silkies. They just stayed away from those two. The ones they went after the most was the white rocks and they are as big as the older ones.
I fixed up a cage with some wire where my younger birds could escape from my older ones. They figured it out pretty quick that they could go into the cage and the older birds couldn't. The younger ones would come out but when the older birds went after them they escaped into their cage. I did put food and water in the cage. Slowly the younger birds came out more and the older birds didn't chase and pick on them as much. Now they are all living in harmony.
I did the same thing with the wire and a few small holes that only the chicks could go through it worked amazingly all of the chickens are in harmony now. It took two weeks for them to be all happy together
