Looking for advice on adding to my flock and traveling with a baby chick!

[KelsT]

Looking for advice early on... I am adding 3 chickens to my flock soon. Right now I have 2 of the new little ones in the brooder and will be picking up the third little girl on saturday. They will be in the brooder for a few weeks so I am just needing suggestions on how best to introduce the new ones to my flock. This is a first for me! My current flock is 4 months old and consists of, a silver laced wyandotte, a Barred plymouth rock, a Danish Brown Leghorn, a easter egger, and a Black Sexlink. the newbies are an Splash Isbar, a Wheaten Ameraucana and a (buff or gold laced) Polish.

I was thinking of putting the brooder (Its a large storage container with the lid cut out covered in hardware cloth) in the chicken run on hot days when the temperature works out. so they can hear each other and get used to each other. The down side I can see for that is the larger chickens getting ontop of the brooder and pooping on the little ones.

Is this a good idea? is there a better approach? what have others done?

Thanks for the advice!!!

Side note: I am picking up the polish an hour away from my house, I really only can have the 1, but I know chicks travel better in pairs or more... Should I get 2 polish and re-home one of them so they have travel buddies or am I ok getting just the 1? They will be 2 weeks old.

 

[azygous]

Please save an extra Polish chick the stress of travel, then being re-homed and more travel by simply bringing the one Polish chick home alone. It won't stress it for the few hours of transit.

You don't say how old the present chicks in the brooder are or how old the new Polish is. If under four weeks, they can be put together with no huge drama.

As for integrating them with the present four-month olds, if they can't see the chicks, there's not point in putting the brooder in the run. Better to create a temporary play pen, and on nice days, over 70F, bring the chicks out for day romps. You can begin at two weeks as long as you monitor for chilling. But around 75F should be no problem for chicks for a few hours away from the brooder.

It's a very good idea to get the flock accustomed to the chicks as early on as possible. They will be far more likely to be accepted as members of the flock when they are integrated.

I like to begin integration around three weeks using a panic room set-up with small pop holes into the run from a safe enclosure so the chicks can safely explore the pecking order and learn where they live and how to function in it, returning to safety when they get scared or overwhelmed by the big chickens.

 

[PixieChick19]

Introducing chickens into a flock can be a tricky process. My advice is to be super careful and to keep a very close watch if you ever do leave the brooder in there. If your older chickens hear the others they might try to attack them in order to start a "pecking order". It is a brutal process and new chickens are often bullied mercilessly but eventually the pecking order is set and your chickens will be fine with one another. However, if the new chickens are too young, it could be very dangerous for them. I had a young Plymouth rock that I was trying to introduce into my flock and one of my older chickens attacked it and injured him so seriously that we had to put him down. You will have to let them mingle although, and as long as they do not get cornered and have an escape route they will be able to avoid they others. If it gets too bad, remove them and start again later. It was a slow process for me but I did it so that I was as certain of the safety of my flock as I could be. Good luck!

 

[KelsT]

Please save an extra Polish chick the stress of travel, then being re-homed and more travel by simply bringing the one Polish chick home alone. It won't stress it for the few hours of transit.

You don't say how old the present chicks in the brooder are or how old the new Polish is. If under four weeks, they can be put together with no huge drama.

As for integrating them with the present four-month olds, if they can't see the chicks, there's not point in putting the brooder in the run. Better to create a temporary play pen, and on nice days, over 70F, bring the chicks out for day romps. You can begin at two weeks as long as you monitor for chilling. But around 75F should be no problem for chicks for a few hours away from the brooder.

It's a very good idea to get the flock accustomed to the chicks as early on as possible. They will be far more likely to be accepted as members of the flock when they are integrated.

I like to begin integration around three weeks using a panic room set-up with small pop holes into the run from a safe enclosure so the chicks can safely explore the pecking order and learn where they live and how to function in it, returning to safety when they get scared or overwhelmed by the big chickens.

Thanks for the info on it being ok to only get one for the travel! I just didn't know what was going to be ok or better for them.

The present chicks in the brooder are the same age, give or take 1 day, as the polish...they will both be 2 weeks old on saturday.

I'll look for a dog crate of make pin they can see each other I have the stuff to do it. I thought it might be something where they need to see each other! The good news is we have a heat wave so the temps will be perfect for doing this for the little ones.

Do you have any photos of your panic room set up in the run?

 

[KelsT]

Introducing chickens into a flock can be a tricky process. My advice is to be super careful and to keep a very close watch if you ever do leave the brooder in there. If your older chickens hear the others they might try to attack them in order to start a "pecking order". It is a brutal process and new chickens are often bullied mercilessly but eventually the pecking order is set and your chickens will be fine with one another. However, if the new chickens are too young, it could be very dangerous for them. I had a young Plymouth rock that I was trying to introduce into my flock and one of my older chickens attacked it and injured him so seriously that we had to put him down. You will have to let them mingle although, and as long as they do not get cornered and have an escape route they will be able to avoid they others. If it gets too bad, remove them and start again later. It was a slow process for me but I did it so that I was as certain of the safety of my flock as I could be. Good luck!

Thanks for sharing your experience, I am so sorry to hear you had a bad one and will keep that in mind when I start to introduce them, Will be needing to find them a dog crate or something for a while so they can get used to each other.

 

[azygous]

My chicks were three weeks old when I lifted the flaps on the portals into the main run. They had been next door to the big chickens since day one, being brooded in that blue heating pad cave/box. Look to the far left and you can see another one. They're in all the partitions so the babies are never trapped anywhere without an escape.

You can make a hardware cloth cover for the doorway of your crate and cut a 5x7 inch hole in it. It would be better to have a regular pen, though, with more than one entrance so the babies have more than one escape back to safety. Food and water go inside the panic room so the chicks don't need to compete for them.

Mine are going on seven weeks now, but they still use their panic room pen to rest up from the pecking order. I'll continue to keep the pen for just the chicks until they grow too big for those openings, which is usually around age three months. By then they're old hands at dealing with the pecking order. Even now, my seven-week olds understand that they must let the bigger chickens have the treats if they're near. I can see them checking for a bigger chicken before snatching up a tossed treat. Amazing how quickly they learn.

 

[KelsT]

My chicks were three weeks old when I lifted the flaps on the portals into the main run. They had been next door to the big chickens since day one, being brooded in that blue heating pad cave/box. Look to the far left and you can see another one. They're in all the partitions so the babies are never trapped anywhere without an escape.

You can make a hardware cloth cover for the doorway of your crate and cut a 5x7 inch hole in it. It would be better to have a regular pen, though, with more than one entrance so the babies have more than one escape back to safety. Food and water go inside the panic room so the chicks don't need to compete for them.

Mine are going on seven weeks now, but they still use their panic room pen to rest up from the pecking order. I'll continue to keep the pen for just the chicks until they grow too big for those openings, which is usually around age three months. By then they're old hands at dealing with the pecking order. Even now, my seven-week olds understand that they must let the bigger chickens have the treats if they're near. I can see them checking for a bigger chicken before snatching up a tossed treat. Amazing how quickly they learn.

This is such and AWESOME set up! I am jealous. do you like the sand a lot? Now I am inspired to add onto my run and I just am doing the finishing touches to it! LOL

 

[azygous]

Oh yes! Sand in the run makes it so easy to scoop up the poop, never any smell or flies to deal with, not to mention worrying where you step. The chickens enjoy being able to "dirt" bathe anywhere in the run, and on very hot days, I can hose down the sand, and the evaporation lowers the temp a good ten degrees, and then the chickens enjoy digging down into the cool sand for relief from the heat.

In winter, the sand helps hold the heat in, and it's a good twenty degrees warmer in the enclosed run than outside. I think having the sand in the run has been one reason I've never had a case of frostbite in my flock.