Introducing two batches of chicks to my hens

[wobit]

I mostly came here to vent, but if anyone has advice it's very welcome.

My chicken life is too complicated right now and I did it to myself. I'm whiney about it because we have up until now had a very nicely largely automated setup with 5 gallon hanging waterer, 25 lb treadle feeder, dusk to dawn Pull-et Shut door to their very large run. Turn the litter once a week and pick up the eggs, very little work for my flock of 7 hens.

But we got greedy for pretty eggs and ordered a McMurray's box of Ameracaunas, Whiting True Greens and Blues, and some Barred Rocks. Then my husband got caught up in it, wanted some Marans which weren't available and so he found a local breeder, who had them available RIGHT NOW so he came home with 5 of those. The 5 Marans are one month older than the 16 McMurrays.

So I have three separate flocks being quarantined from each other, tons of food and watering dishes to fill, trying to keep my kids on track with feeding the right stuff to the right birds.

For my sanity I'm trying to integrate them as soon as possible. This has been a staged process. First I set up a "pullet coop" partitioned off inside the hen run, for the Marans to live in starting when they were about 6 weeks. I don't have any other secure outside space so during this time the 16 McMurray's babies were sleeping inside my living room at night in a watermelon box, and being carried outside each morning to spend the day in a 4'x8' welded wire "playpen" on the grass outside where my husband can keep one eye on while he works from home.

I've been arranging for short periods of supervised mingling of the now 8 week old Marans in with the hens, and most of the hens ignore them but there is one bully Rhodey that would run at them. She never actually struck them and would let them run away but she would definitely guard the food and water. So yesterday I swapped them - I put the bully in the little pullet area (it's a tiny coop and run inside the real run) and mixed the 8 week old Marans in with the hens. The Marans are clearly imprinted on their little coop even though it has the bully in it - they stay in the parts of the yard closest to it. All the other hens just ignore the Marans. Their 25'x25' run has plenty of obstacles to run around so that if the Marans need to run away, they cannot be cornered. There's extra water available and we've seen them eat out of the treadle feeder (everyone's on grower now, with oyster shell available).

The rub is that it's quite annoying to carry the 4 week old McMurrays flock of pullets in and out. Now that they're feathered, I'd like to get them into the "pullet coop" area ASAP to give them more space and mental stimulus and a chance to talk with the hens through the fence. This all depends on the bully being reformed. I suppose I could put the "playpen" inside the house or garage and isolate her further away from everyone. I don't know whether the bully needs to be out of the line of sight of her victims in order to lose her place in the pecking order and get the comeuppance she needs. I suppose the answer depends on the individual. She's clearly livid about being separated.

I'm trying to make sure everybody has plenty of entertaining food scraps, and have set up an even larger electric fenced paddock for the hens to go out and roam widely, and I'm going out with a teaspoon of scratch treats every now and again to see how they're all doing and teach the Marans to want to come to me. What else can I do to engineer success?

 

[Tiggerandfriends]

I have done several integrations and I have found that once your birds are old enough to be put in your coup and run full time, put them in the coup at night and lock them in. Every time I do this, I find little to no problems when I let them into their run in the morning. I wouldn’t separate the bully from the others as that could lead to her being removed from the pecking order and she may get injured when you put her back in the flock. Just lock them all up one night in their coup. This is the way that I have found to be the best. I hope this way works for you.

 

[RWise]

Once feathered out and 4 weeks old, integrate ASAP.
Your "bully" sounds like the boss lady to me, and is telling the little ones she is the boss and that is her food/water/etc.. They will learn who they can be next to and who they need to move away from fast.

 

[aart]

I would have integrated the chicks together first, then integrate all the chicks with the adults. BTDT. But I have a temporary separate area in coop.

How big is your coop, can you split off an area for the chicks?
Is it big enough for all those birds once grown?

Some of these might help.....
Integration Basics:
It's all about territory and resources(space/food/water).
Existing birds will almost always attack new ones to defend their resources.
Understanding chicken behaviors is essential to integrating new birds into your flock.

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact.

In adjacent runs, spread scratch grains along the dividing mesh, best if mesh is just big enough for birds to stick their head thru, so they get used to eating together.

The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no copious blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down and beaten unmercilessly, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide 'out of line of sight'(but not a dead end trap) and/or up and away from any bully birds. Roosts, pallets or boards leaned up against walls or up on concrete blocks, old chairs tables, branches, logs, stumps out in the run can really help. Lots of diversion and places to 'hide' instead of bare wide open run.

 

[wobit]

Thanks, chicken friends!

It would be tough to split off indoor coop space for the chicks, which is why we went with a separate structure inside the same run. My main coop is a Woods-style fresh air coop which I built 6x10 thinking I would have fifteen hens and wanted each to have 4 square feet of indoor space. In the fall I will very likely cull down to just one rooster, leaving 26 birds. They also have automated dawn-to-dusk access to a 25x25 foot partially covered run and a few times a week we let them out past that into a paddock defined by flexible electric fence for additional fun. So they'll be tight on days they choose to stay inside but hopefully not too tight as to cause behavioral issues from crowding. 26 square feet per bird in nice weather, only about 4 square feet per bird if they need to be under the roofed area.

After reading up on here lots, after I posted yesterday I let the bully out and observed her for a long time. She seems satisfied so long as the Marans act suitably skittish around her. She lets them escape. Therefore I let her back in to the main flock, and cleaned out the little temp coop and put all the 4 week olds into it. It's nearly 24 hours and cautiously, things are working well. The Marans keep to themselves and don't range as far out into the paddock as the hens do, and the hens definitely hog all the choicest bits of compost, but they seem relaxed. They tried to bed down for the night on the ground near the temp coop, but accepted being put into the main coop after dark. They don't fly up to roost with the hens yet, but I assume that'll come. I'll let the 4 week olds look through the fence for a few weeks and then mingle them. That's a great tip about feeding along the edge of the fence and providing places to hide.

 

[wobit]

That Rhodie will be in for a rude surprise in another month or two - 2 of the Marans are cockerels, and one is starting to crow! Here's hoping he doesn't perpetuate the cycle of abuse once he's the bigger one!

 

[wobit]

In followup - thank you, my friends - all is well and integrated, the flock is whole and seems happy.