Merging Flocks

[jaclynn_chan]

Good morning and happy Easter weekend! We have 3 easter egger girls who are exactly 2 months old today, and we'd like to get 2 blue sapphire chicks to add to the flock. Are our EEs young enough that they'll accept these new chicks? Or would it be highly dangerous to add 2 more to the flock without slowing introducing them? Thanks for the advice/help!

 

[Ridgerunner]

You can always try, you never know what will happen with living animals. Sometimes it does work. But I would not try it, I would consider it too dangerous and go for a slower method.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Good morning and happy Easter weekend! We have 3 easter egger girls who are exactly 2 months old today, and we'd like to get 2 blue sapphire chicks to add to the flock. Are our EEs young enough that they'll accept these new chicks? Or would it be highly dangerous to add 2 more to the flock without slowing introducing them? Thanks for the advice/help!

Your Easter Eggers should be fully feathered by now and so able to live comfortably outdoors, while new chicks would need to be kept under heat. Are you asking about housing them all together now or later? If now, the much-larger-in-size EEs could accidently hurt the Blue Sapphire chicks even if they accepted their presence.

 

[jaclynn_chan]

Your Easter Eggers should be fully feathered by now and so able to live comfortably outdoors, while new chicks would need to be kept under heat. Are you asking about housing them all together now or later? If now, the much-larger-in-size EEs could accidently hurt the Blue Sapphire chicks even if they accepted their presence.

I was thinking of obviously keeping the new chicks inside for a week or two, bringing them outside during the day while supervised in their own area where everyone can see each other, and then when the sapphire chicks are older letting them all free range together and see what happens?

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Thank you for your clarification. I think your plan should work since they will not all be confined together with no means for the youngest ones to escape. For safety's sake, the two sets of chicks should be separate but visible to each other for 2-3 weeks. After that time, or when the older chicks are completely ignoring the younger ones, you can allow them to intermingle while under your supervision, with the goal of having them fully integrated by the time the youngest ones are feathered enough to live outdoors. They will still need to establish their pecking order so the more daily exposure to each other the better, but an earlier integration while they are all still young will hopefully lead to faster peace and acceptance within the flock. Also, welcome to BYC!