Merging Baby Chick Flocks

[YourLostSock]

Hello and good morning!
I have two ‘flocks’ of chicks. 1 has 5 pullets which are all 7 weeks old. They are very friendly Easter Eggers who seem to have their pecking order pretty well established. I rarely see any dominance displays and haven’t seen them try to peck each other since they were three weeks old. They are currently outside in a coop with a 130 square foot run.
I also have two 4 week old chicks- a Buff Orpington pullet and a Salmon Favorelle cockerel. The cockerel is pretty small for his breed, I think. I bought him sick and nursed him back to health. Though he is much stronger now, he is still small.
I’d like to have the flock integrated in a week and be able to trust them not to hurt each other unsupervised by the time that the two 4 week olds are old enough to sleep in the coop with the older ones at night.
Any tips for going about this?
Since yesterday, I’ve been keeping the 4 week olds in the coop while the other ones can run around and they can both see each other through the caging fence.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Keep them separated for a week or so, then when you have time to supervise, let the mingle and see what happens. Some bullying is normal, but don't let it get to the point of injury.

Would help immensely to add some clutter/obstacles to your run, as well as having feeders spread out. Right now it's a big empty rectangle. Clutter helps give birds a place to hide if other are chasing or picking on them, and the ability to eat in peace, if feed stations are placed behind them.

 

[cluckadoodledoo13]

i agree with rosemarythyme . Just have more than one food/water located in the run to minimalise pecking.

 

[centrarchid]

The arrangement described I would add juveniles to the chicks home turf.

 

[aart]

That coop is maybe barely big enough for the five 7wo's.
7 full grown birds will be very crowded in there.

So the 2 new chicks are in the tiny coop/run combo?
Where do the older ones sleep?

 

[YourLostSock]

Thank you all for the advice so far. I had been doing some research on my own while waiting for a reply to this post and have added some obstacles for cover and multiple other feed bowls. As it stands, the original flock has never pecked or fought each other for food bowls or chased each other around, so I didn’t see it as needed. But there are now two food bowls and water bowls out there.
Right now the 7 week olds sleep in the loft of the coop at night. When I bought the coop, I was told it was big enough for 6 full grown chickens. I plan to upgrade to a bigger coop soon, but it’s been awfully hard to find one lately- everywhere I look is sold out and on back order.
The two 4 week olds spend the night in the brooder.
during the day the 4 week olds are in the coop with the 7 week olds are in the run. I have let them out a few times to intermingle but so far it hasn’t been going too well. I know some fighting is normal but it still makes me nervous.I am working from home right now so I have plenty of time to supervise.
I am a bit surprised to hear that the run is thought to be small! I had researched that 10 square feet per bird is the minimum per run, and I thought I was doing pretty well having 130 sq feet for 7 birds. They seem to be really happy with the space. Most of the other backyard bird owners I have talked with have called it a ‘chicken palace’ for having so much space. Please forgive me, I am awfully new at this. How much space should I provide?

 

[aart]

I am a bit surprised to hear that the run is thought to be small! I had researched that 10 square feet per bird is the minimum per run, and I thought I was doing pretty well having 130 sq feet for 7 birds. They seem to be really happy with the space. Most of the other backyard bird owners I have talked with have called it a ‘chicken palace’ for having so much space. Please forgive me, I am awfully new at this. How much space should I provide?

The run is a fine size....it's the coop that is too small.

That coop is maybe barely big enough for the five 7wo's.
7 full grown birds will be very crowded in there.

 

[YourLostSock]

Oh I see! I’m so sorry, I completely misread. Thank you very much for the clarification.
I’ll continue trying out your methods. At this age, would it be possible to eventually fully integrate them as a flock or would they always be two somewhat subflocks just sharing a space?

 

[rosemarythyme]

Oh I see! I’m so sorry, I completely misread. Thank you very much for the clarification.
I’ll continue trying out your methods. At this age, would it be possible to eventually fully integrate them as a flock or would they always be two somewhat subflocks just sharing a space?

While they're young they'll likely stick with their age mates, even though they aren't very far apart in age. Once they start laying they'll merge more to become one flock.

And I agree the run space is good, but coop space may become an issue. Don't go by what the manufacturers claim, go by hard math: measure the coop floor space, excluding nest boxes, and calculate roughly 4 sq ft per bird.

 

[BaaKaaawk]

You can introduce them however you want. A lot of people like to slow-roll introductions, which is fine if that is how they like to do it. I just toss everyone in together and I have never had a death as a result of it with the important caveat that all the birds are under 6 months. Over 3 months I do take a little more care, but under 3 months I just toss them together and they kind of form clicks but no one has any issues.

I'm also not a conformist on coop size regulations. I think those are designed to be the typical "worst case scenario". Every single person and every single coop and every single run is different. If you let your birds out early and put them in late and no one is picking on each other and no one is having diseases or issues- then you figure out how many birds is right for you.

I am a FIRM believer any backyard chicken has already won the lottery. If they have 2 sf or coop or 10 sf and 2 sf or run or 100... it's 100X better than the 1x1 box that 99.9% of chickens live in for 6 moths until they are killed for production. So yes- it would be wonderful if everyone had 20sf per bird- but anyone doing their best to take care of their chickens I commend and wish them good luck. Do what works for you.