Mixing 12 week old growers with existing flock.

[RachaelR32]

I've got 7 12 week old growers that my broody hatched out in January. At the moment they are in a separate coop and run to my 3 adult girls. I would like to put them all together as the growers really want to get out of the run. I've just finished a 1000sqft enclosure for them all and the adult birds have been in it for a week when they are not free ranging. I've a separate coop set up down there for the growers.

How do I go about mixing the 2 groups? Mamma hen has been away from the babies for about 4 weeks since she was really wanting to get out free ranging but the babies weren't big enough to stand up to my cats.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I would put a temporary fence around their coop and add them, after a week or two start letting them out to see what the interaction will be.

 

[RachaelR32]

I've made a small run inside the enclosure. I hope they get on ok. Put them down there this morning and the big girls didn't even seem to notice. They were too busy shouting about the broody taking up their nest box.