Joining new and old

[RandyRoooo]

Until your young ones mature enough to force their way into the pecking order the mature ones outrank them. If the young ones invade their personal space they are likely to get pecked. it usually doesn't take them long to learn to avoid the older ones day and night.

When are you seeing feathers fly? Where are they? If it's out when they are free ranging and they've had a chance to learn to avoid the adults, you probably have an aggressive hen that is a brute. Does she go after them, even if they are trying to stay away? If it is when they are all shoehorned into a small space, well that's not unusual. They don't have room to avoid the adults.

The way I manage mine is that my brooder is in the coop. A wire brooder so they can see each other. The chicks grow up with the flock. When those chicks hit 5 weeks of age I open the brooder door and walk away. That's it, that's how I integrate. I have lot of room outside but so do you. My coop is big enough that the chicks can avoid the adults at night. I have several feeding and watering stations, one in the coop but many outside.

My brooder-raised pullets typically don't start to roost on the main roosts with the adults until they start to lay. As long as they don't sleep in the nests and are somewhere predator safe I don't care where they sleep. I don't see any benefit to trying to force then to sleep together on the main roosts or share tight spaces during the day. I try to give them as much room as I can and let them work things out at their pace.

I don't know how your coop is set up for doors and such or what that divider looks like with doors. I'd try letting your juveniles free range with your adults during the day. If you have an adult brute you may need to lock her up for a while. Let them sleep wherever they want at night as long as you are OK with it. If they go back to their part of the coop lock them in there the first week or so at night and let the adults outside to range before you let the juveniles out. After they have ranged peacefully together for a week or so, don't lock them separately at night but be down there at daylight to see how it's going. With mine I only have to do that once or twice before I'm sure they will be OK in there if I want to sleep in, but I don't know how big your coop is. We are all unique, our facilities are different. Once things are peaceful stop worrying about it and let them become one flock at their pace. They will get there.

 

[RandyRoooo]

Everything you say makes sense. I guess I am a little too worried that they will hurt one another. The coop has a door that will allow them into each other’s spaces. The incident that worried me was that the dominant older hen backed the young rooster against the wall. It seemed like it was going to be a fight to the death. The younger hens came in to the new space somewhat peacefully. There was a bit of pecking but nothing violent. I guess I should let them free range with the older girls and hope they cohabitate peacefully when they come in for the night.

 

[NatJ]

The incident that worried me was that the dominant older hen backed the young rooster against the wall. It seemed like it was going to be a fight to the death.

Free-ranging might help here. With more space, the cockerel would probably have run away and been fine. Even if the hen chased him for a few minutes, if he had room to keep running, she would decide at some point that eating grass is more interesting than chasing that fellow who had already acknowledged her as top bird.

 

[RandyRoooo]

Free-ranging might help here. With more space, the cockerel would probably have run away and been fine. Even if the hen chased him for a few minutes, if he had room to keep running, she would decide at some point that eating grass is more interesting than chasing that fellow who had already acknowledged her as top bird.

 

[RandyRoooo]

I just tried to let the young’uns out. Lol. They wouldn’t come. Still very nervous. I’ll try again tomorrow.

 

[NatJ]

I just tried to let the young’uns out. Lol. They wouldn’t come. Still very nervous. I’ll try again tomorrow.

You could leave the old ones shut in for a day, and let the young ones out. That way they can explore the new scary place without also dealing with the big scary hens.

 

[aart]

The incident that worried me was that the dominant older hen backed the young rooster against the wall. It seemed like it was going to be a fight to the death.

Did you break it up, or did she let him go without blood shed?
As long as there's no blood shed, I'd leave them to it,
young cockerels need some schooling and older hens are good teachers.

 

[WVBirdsAndBees]

We have a similar coop setup split down the middle. When we tried to let the youngsters mingle with the flock at 16 weeks, one of the more adventurous young hens got attacked and hurt pretty bad. So we waited a couple more weeks when the younger birds were a bit bigger and they'd seen each other through the coop divider that much longer. The second attempt went much better. Actually, one of the older birds that originally attacked the young bird chose to roost on the youngsters side one night last week. They've now worked it all out. It really is kinda touch and go, keeping an eye on them and making sure nobody is too rough at first. Pecking and some chasing is normal. As long as there's not blood or groups ganging up one bird, they should be good to go after a day or two of supervision.