Moving babies out of the brooder & into the hen house with older girls

[HollywoodHens]

I live in S FL and would like to move about 20 babies out ASAP...however when I do move them out they will be sharing a coop with 8 older girls...at what age can everyone meet? Also, as long as they are enclosed in the coop at night, do I need to figure out how to keep a heat lamp in there too? It's been in the 60-50s at night, but the coop is fairly small....suggestions for the whole process? Also, when can i start taking them outside during the day...they arrive on Monday. This it the first time i'm raising babies, I've always left it to the chicken mommies...

 

[midget_farms]

You ask good questions - to some degree it depends on how old the babies are.

If they are fully feathered they can move to the coop.

Now as for the other hens - if you put them in there in the daylight the old hens will kill them.

You need to slip them in real quiet in the middle of the night when they are asleep.

Believe it or not - chickens can't count! If they wake up with more chickens than they went to bed with they don't even notice!

There will be some pecking order stuff - but nothing too bad.

Good luck.