Mixing 2 year olds with 2 month olds?

[KSeggers]

Hi!

I have 4 remaining 2 year old hens (we had a tough start to the spring with 2 hens randomly dying).

We got baby chicks this year and 4 of them are now 7 weeks old and 3 are 6 weeks old.

The catch is that somehow we ended up with 2 of our older 4 being roosters (about 99.9% confident and hoping the others are all females).

Right now the younger ones are in a small pen next to the older hen's pen. They've been there for a few weeks. When is the right time or what is the right way to mix them?

Thanks!!

 

[rosemarythyme]

What does your run look like? How big, any clutter?

The chicks are on the verge of being too big to use a panic door type set up: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/integrating-new-birds-at-4-weeks-old.72603/ but some of the principals still apply - lots of space and clutter to provide hiding space will help the chicks hide from adults if needed, and having multiple feeders spread out will help ensure that the hens can't guard all the food all the time.

 

[KSeggers]

What does your run look like? How big, any clutter?

The chicks are on the verge of being too big to use a panic door type set up: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/integrating-new-birds-at-4-weeks-old.72603/ but some of the principals still apply - lots of space and clutter to provide hiding space will help the chicks hide from adults if needed, and having multiple feeders spread out will help ensure that the hens can't guard all the food all the time.

The coop is an odd setup. It's approximately 9'x12' and we usually let the adults free range in the evenings (or all day during quarantine). However, there is a tractor supply "prebuilt coop" inside it....Yes, I realize that's weird and inconvenient. My husband agreed to build a bigger coop for the chickens this year. Apparently he decided to do the entire project without asking for any of my input and just built a box around the old coop....Definitely not what I was imagining! As you can kind of see in the pictures, the small coop for the little chicks is right next to the bigger one.

That's definitely a helpful idea to have multiple food and water locations.

Thanks for helping!