Merging two flocks, weather concerns

[bizzynik]

I've got two separate flocks, new and old, and the new girls are ready to come out of quarantine. My orginal plan was to move them over tomorrow night after the old flock has settled into the roosts, and them allow every one to free range supervised on Friday. We are supposed to get a TON of rain from Harvey starting tomorrow night around 11, and continuing all day into Saturday. My quarantine pen isn't as watertight as my coop, so I feel the birds would fair better in there, but with all the weather coming I'm not sure free ranging everyone together for the first time on Friday is a good idea. My coop is plenty big enough for everyone, with plenty of roost space for everyone to ride out the weather. I just don't want to cause any of the birds any undew stress. What would you do?

 

[MagpieDucks]

I've got two separate flocks, new and old, and the new girls are ready to come out of quarantine. My orginal plan was to move them over tomorrow night after the old flock has settled into the roosts, and them allow every one to free range supervised on Friday. We are supposed to get a TON of rain from Harvey starting tomorrow night around 11, and continuing all day into Saturday. My quarantine pen isn't as watertight as my coop, so I feel the birds would fair better in there, but with all the weather coming I'm not sure free ranging everyone together for the first time on Friday is a good idea. My coop is plenty big enough for everyone, with plenty of roost space for everyone to ride out the weather. I just don't want to cause any of the birds any undew stress. What would you do?

Is there a way you can fence off a portion of your coop for the younger ones just to keep them out of the rain?

 

[aart]

Did you 'quarantine' them far from the main coop?

My coop is plenty big

How big in feet by feet....and how many birds in each group?

Splitting the coop would be the best way to start integration.

 

[Mrs. K]

A quick way to separate if you have a building with exposed rafters. Drive some nails into the rafter, leaving it sticking our about .5 of an inch, or a little less. Take a piece of chicken wire, with a weight tied to the bottom, and hang the top on the rafters. I used a broken fence post as the weight, two sections of chicken wire, and set the whole divider up in less than 10 minutes.

You are in a quandary, I would not put strange birds together and then confine them to a coop for what might be a couple of days... so either weather tighten the small coop, or divide the larger one is my advice.