Mixing my youngens and big girls

[Chick_a_dee]

I have 5 EE girls and 15 RIR X girls, the RIR X's are a year old, and the EE's are 10 weeks old. My coop has two sections, a small feed area and the main coop, these two areas are separated by a chicken wire wall. The EE girls live in the feed area right now (sans feed bins lol) and the big girls are in the main coop. They can see each other through the fence but haven't interacted yet. How should I introduce them? I reallllyyy want my feed area back! I realize I probably can't do it until 12 weeks, they're still quite small. I'm not worried about them getting crushed or anything, its getting pecked I'm worried about! ... Also, what should I do with their food once they're in with the big girls? They have a hanging feeder just like the big girls, but they're on grower and the big girls are obviously on layer. I know I can probably stop the little ones from eating the layer by raising the layer feeder, but how do I stop the layers from eating the grower?

 

[Opa]

I think you would be asking for problems if you put them together to soon. I never intergrate birds less than 16 weeks with the flock.

 

[vnploveschickens]

You'll need to make sure the younger ones are about the same size as the older ones before trying to integrate the flocks. Its good that they can see each other now.

For the feed, you can feed something like Purina Flock Raiser to both and just supply oyster shell free-choice in a separate bowl for the layers.

Hope that helps!

Val

 

[Chick_a_dee]

Quote:
Can I just say... I really dig your chicken run.

 

[Chick_a_dee]

Quote:
I can't get flock raiser unfortunately. The EE's are on a local mills grower crumbles because the Purina was too big and they wasted a lot and the layers are on Layena.