beancountingforchickens
In the Brooder
Hello all,
I have two flocks of 6 weeks old chicks. One flock consists of 7 chicks that were in a brooder in my dining room and were recently moved out to their coop. The second flock consists of 5 chicks that were raised by a broody hen. I have removed the hen because she has started to lay again and has made her way back to the big girl's coop. I have 3 separate coops. One for the 7 chicks, one for the 5 chicks, and then the big girls have their own. I am integrating them slowly. The 7 are in a coop/run within the big girl's coop/run so that the big girls can get used to them before I merge them all. The other 5 have a separate coop/run which I eventually plan to change to the rooster hut. Each morning I take the 7 out of their coop/run and place them in the bigger coop/run with the other 5. They manage a little peck here or there but nothing overly concerning. My problem is that they stay with their own flock in two separate corners of the run. There appear to be 2 roosters in the mix of one flock and one seems to venture out and wants to mingle with the "magnificent 7", but all 12 never seem to want to mingle as one flock. At night the 5 go up but the other 7 just hang out under the coop, so I end up moving them back to their coop. When I brought the 7 outside to live, the mama had not left the other 5 just yet and I was a little afraid she would not treat the 7 well, so I didn't want to chance them being harmed, thus they got their own coop.
Would I be better off to put them all in the coop at night and shut the door so that they wake up together in the morning and they are all familiar with the same coop or should I just leave them all separate and stop trying to "make them be friends". I didn't intend to have two separate flocks, but I had two broody hens and one just wasn't going to sit and hatch the eggs so I had to move them into an incubator. There were just too many for the single hen to sit on. I just trying to figure out a way to have everyone happy . Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
I have two flocks of 6 weeks old chicks. One flock consists of 7 chicks that were in a brooder in my dining room and were recently moved out to their coop. The second flock consists of 5 chicks that were raised by a broody hen. I have removed the hen because she has started to lay again and has made her way back to the big girl's coop. I have 3 separate coops. One for the 7 chicks, one for the 5 chicks, and then the big girls have their own. I am integrating them slowly. The 7 are in a coop/run within the big girl's coop/run so that the big girls can get used to them before I merge them all. The other 5 have a separate coop/run which I eventually plan to change to the rooster hut. Each morning I take the 7 out of their coop/run and place them in the bigger coop/run with the other 5. They manage a little peck here or there but nothing overly concerning. My problem is that they stay with their own flock in two separate corners of the run. There appear to be 2 roosters in the mix of one flock and one seems to venture out and wants to mingle with the "magnificent 7", but all 12 never seem to want to mingle as one flock. At night the 5 go up but the other 7 just hang out under the coop, so I end up moving them back to their coop. When I brought the 7 outside to live, the mama had not left the other 5 just yet and I was a little afraid she would not treat the 7 well, so I didn't want to chance them being harmed, thus they got their own coop.
Would I be better off to put them all in the coop at night and shut the door so that they wake up together in the morning and they are all familiar with the same coop or should I just leave them all separate and stop trying to "make them be friends". I didn't intend to have two separate flocks, but I had two broody hens and one just wasn't going to sit and hatch the eggs so I had to move them into an incubator. There were just too many for the single hen to sit on. I just trying to figure out a way to have everyone happy . Any advice would be greatly appreciated!