Might this work?

[LizStreithorst]

First a bit of backstory...I had 10 Light Brahma hens and a Light Brahma rooster that I raised from day old chicks from Murray McMurray. When I found that my dogs ignored them I allowed them to be free range. They roost in the chicken house and go in to eat and lay but the rest of the time they are out and about finding what they want to eat. They were 8 months old at the time of a dog attack by two of my own dogs. I lost 5 hens and my rooster. I was able to place the dogs who were otherwise sweet dogs in homes without chickens. Everything has been fine since but I want more chickens. I want Delawares.

In a perfect world I would have a hen go broody and be able to find fertile Delaware eggs either here or on ebay. But the world is not perfect...If I were to have to get day old chicks and raise them an a brooder box 4'X4' with walls 2' high inside my chicken house and covered the brooder box with hardware cloth so the existing hens could not jump in and attack them and remove the hardware cloth when the babies got big and strong enough to jump out might my existing hens accept them? Is this even worth trying?

 

[Keziah]

you can try that, but your hens will have to wait and might ignore the younger ones and never let them be a broody. you might want to get chicks and start from scratch so just in case something happens to your older chickens, you still have the chicks. or you can buy fully grown hens or roosters and have them fight for pecking order.Then they will be the same age.



( i am new at this so do not take just my opinion)

 

[aart]

Is this even worth trying?

Absolutely!
That's how I brood and integrate new chicks, it's worked better than any other integration.

The 'tiny doors' could be any number of configurations, lattice panels can work well as part of the separation wall between chicks are and main flock.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/integrating-new-birds-at-4-weeks-old.72603/

 

[Ridgerunner]

I do it a little differently than Aart but then my set-up is different than Aart's. I built this 3' x 6' brooder as a permanent part of the coop. The top is my droppings board for the main roosts. I elevated it and made the floor out of 1/2" hardwire cloth so poop drops into bins I got from Walmart for easy clean-up and to keep the brooder very dry. The plastic is there to keep the hens from going underneath and as a wind barrier. I've put chicks in here straight from the incubator in January when the outside temperature was below freezing, I've put chicks in here in July when it was really hot out but in winter it's wrapped a lot better.

I'm not trying to tell you that you have to do anything like I do it, there are plenty of different ways to accomplish what you are trying to do. Brooding outside has one tremendous difference to brooding in a climate controlled place. The temperature swings create a real challenge. I've had overnight lows in the mid-teens Fahrenheit followed two days later by highs in the 70's.

Chicks can handle much colder temperatures than a lot of people give them credit for, but they do need a place to go to warm up. I use heat lamps to keep one end toasty no matter the weather but allow the other end to cool off. Some mornings in winter I've had ice in the far end but the heated area was toasty. In summer I raise the heat lamp and use a lower wattage bulb. One summer during a ridiculous for us heat wave I turned the daytime heat off at 2 days and the overnight heat off at 5 days. All this is a lot different than brooding in a steady temperature in the 70's.

I'm not pushing heat lamps. There are a lot of different ways to provide a warm spot but at the same time have another area cool enough. Heating pads, heating plates, emitters, hovers, and other things have their own advantages, disadvantages, and risks but if used correctly they all work.

I normally keep my chicks in here until they are 5 weeks old. In the middle of winter with temperatures below freezing I might keep them in a few days longer but I’ve had chicks raised this way go through nights in the mid 20’s F with no supplemental heat at age 5-1/2 weeks. To me that’s one advantage of raising them outside in a brooder large enough so the far end really cools off. They get acclimated to those colder temperatures.

Normally around five weeks of age I do one of two things. For various reasons I might move some or all to my grow-out coop at the far end of the main run. This coop if 4’ x 8’ and has an 8’ x 12’ part of the main run I can isolate. I keep the chicks locked in here until they are coop-trained to go into this coop at night to sleep. That’s normally around 8 weeks of age so that’s when I open the gates and let them mingle with the main flock.

Instead of using that grow-out pen I might just open the door to the brooder and walk away. When I come back later and they areall out I close that door and lock them out. That’s it, that’s how I integrate. I’ve never lost a chick to another adult flock member doing it this way.

There are a few key points. In addition to a reasonably large coop and my 12’ x 32’ main run I have an outside area roughly 60’ x 70’ enclosed in electric netting. I paced it off a few weeks ago, it’s actually a little bigger than I thought. In my climate the chickens can and do spend practically all day of every day outside, they are not in the coop unless they are laying an egg. In my mind the more room you have the easier integration goes. Aart doesn’t have that room so other methods are used to compensate. There are all kinds of different ways to do these things.

I have several separate feeding and watering stations inside and outside the coop, scattered around so the chicks can eat and drink without having to challenge the adults.

Another very important point. My chicks are raised with the flock. Even with that clear plastic or in the run with the grow-out coop, they can see each other as the chicks grow up. That solves basic integration. They still have pecking order issues and will until they mature enough to join the main flock, but with enough room they can handle that.

There are other details and other tricks we use, but this is enough typing this morning. I don’t know what the best method will be for you and your unique system, but the basic idea of raising them outside can work, a lot of us do it.

 

[LizStreithorst]

Thank you all for your guidance. Mine will be different from both of yours but will contain the main elements.

 

[sourland]

It might work, but have a plan B just in case.

 

[Mrs. K]

Last spring in early March I raised chicks under a wooly hen that I made out of wool. I kept them in the garage, used a heat lamp during the day, but at night, I turned it off, and stuck them under the wooly hen. By 3 weeks, I took them to the coop/run. Sectioned off a place with lattice panels, set an old window up against a shelter as a sun room. And in a week, they were with the big girls in the coop at night. It was perfect.

ps - I got Delaware chickens from Sandhills Preservation. I was pleased with them, but they have a minimum order of 25 chicks.

 

[LizStreithorst]

I checked out Sandhills Preservation but they only sell straight run. Murray McMurray sell day olds sexed and both times I've ordered from them they have nailed it. I'm going to get 22 females and 3 males. It shouldn't be too many roosters since I already have 5 Light Brahma hens.

 

[chickencheeper]

I checked out Sandhills Preservation but they only sell straight run. Murray McMurray sell day olds sexed and both times I've ordered from them they have nailed it. I'm going to get 22 females and 3 males. It shouldn't be too many roosters since I already have 5 Light Brahma hens.

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