Moving chicks in with big girls

[ChrisBLover8]

we have a flock of 7 free rangers who stay in a chixken tractor at night. 6 hens one rooster. We have a smaller coop that currently has 9, 7 week old chicks and 3 13 week old pullets. Can I move the 3 pullets over to the Tractor with the big girls/boy yet and if so can I keep them from eating each other’s food or is it ok for the pullets to go off of started and have layer feed ?

 

[pwiker]

Normally, layers come off starter arouaround 10 weeks. However, 16 weeks is about the limit before you need to give them a ration with calcium, (llayer ration). You should be fine mixing rangers and sharing feed since the rangers will be gone by 12 or 14 weeks,

 

[Ridgerunner]

What does that tractor look like, how big is it in feet or meters, and how do you manage them? Photos could help. I don't know if you let them totally free range where they go back to the coop (tractor) at night (why have a tractor?) or if you have them in electric netting during the day and move the netting and tractor when you need to.

All your chicks should be old enough to range with the adults during the day since it sounds like you have a lot of room though those younger chicks may be able to squeeze through the holes in the netting if you use netting. It's the sleeping arrangements at night and how early you let them out of the tractor/coop that concerns me. I raise my chicks with the flock and they sleep in the same coop but I have a big coop set up for that. When you say tractor I envision something small.

You cannot stop them from eating each other's feed. The way many of us handle that is to feed them all Starter, Grower, Flock Raiser, or similar low calcium feed and offer oyster shell on the side. The ones that need it for the shells usually know to eat it and those that don't need it for shells know enough to not eat enough to harm themselves.

 

[Mrs. K]

Basically you have 19 birds, within months you are going to need a coop that will handle that, and while you may be able to cheat on numbers and space this summer by free ranging, you will need to have the number of birds fit your set up come October when the days get short, and the amount of time they roost gets longer and longer. You should be having an 8x10 foot coop for those numbers, excluding the run.

I am with Ridge runner, a tractor just sounds too small for that number of birds.

As to your original question, I would put all of them together at this time. There will be some scuffles, but adding more to less works better than adding less to more. It will spread the pecking out. So what I am saying is adding 10 to the 6 will work better than adding 3 to the 6, those 3 are apt to take a bit of abuse, unless you have had them side by side in a see but don't touch situation.

MRs K

 

[Ridgerunner]

I could easily envision them ranging together during the day but sleeping separately at night for a while. Don't force them to be together any more than you have to but give them the opportunity to work those ting out for themselves at their own pace.

 

[lazy gardener]

Agreed with RR and Mrs K. More info needed to adequately answer your question. I am a stickler on space requirements, and feel that providing the needed space prevents a lot of issues including undue aggression, blood shed, cannibalism, and even disease and parasites.

If I had the room, I would put all the birds together at the same time. I would certainly be providing supervised free range time for all the birds to make future integration easier.

As for your feed concerns, starter is higher protein, and therefore more palatable. Standard practice is to not put pullets on layer until they approach POL. However, I do not worry about pullets eating layer when they are going through chicken puberty (they will start to cluck). I assume your older pullets are now on grower? Or are they still on starter? You could make a creep feeder for the 7 week olds if you did choose to put them all together at once.