Mixing chicks and hens

[Cheryl Reith]

I have 2, 3yr old hens and 30 chicks 8 weeks old. The 2 hens set outside the chicks pen all day long. Some chicks are half size of hens. Is it to early to put them together?

 

[Chicken_Obsesser]

I would personally wait about two more weeks but I think it would be okay to integrate now.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hi, welcome to the forum! Glad you joined!

What do your facilities look like, both during the day and where they will sleep? To me it is not a question of age but how you will go about it. My brooder raised chicks are often integrated by 5 weeks. I've had broody hens wean their chicks and leave them on their own with the flock at 3 weeks of age. Eight weeks is certainly not too early but how you go about it can be critical.

My flock is a lot different from yours and I imagine my set-up is also different. My chicks form a sub-flock and avoid the adults until the pullets start to lay. Once they start to lay they are accepted into the pecking order and are allowed to roost with the hens and eat with the hens. Until then, they stay well away from adults day and night. If they invade the hens personal space they are likely to get pecked so they quickly learn to avoid them.

You have two hens and 30 chicks. Your dynamics could be very different from mine.

Without knowing any of your details the generic suggestions are to house them across wire from each other for a week or more so they recognize each other. Then let them together during the day but give them a lot of room so the young can stay far from the adults if they want to. Have several widely separated food and water stations so the young ones can eat and drink without being bullied by the adults. Provide clutter. This mean things they can hide under or behind or get over. Break line of sight. Try to not force them share a small space.

Mine do not sleep on the roosts with the adults until they start to lay. My coop is big enough that the chicks can sleep somewhere other than the main roosts without being bullied or attacked by the adults. At night the adults are on the main roosts, the chicks have other places to sleep. In the morning when I let them out the adults are on the coop floor and the chicks are up on my 5 feet high roosts avoiding the adults.