I was thinking about trying to integrate my babies (about 4 weeks) into the coop with my big girls. It's been warm here, probably averaging in the 80s every day but it usually gets kinda chilly at night. Is it a good idea to move them now, or should I wait a little longer? They are pretty well feathered now, and I don't think they would be too bad off if it only got to the 70s at night. I could even put a heat lamp in, though I would rather not. Suggestions?
Are the big girls adults? Or how old are they? If so, I would wait until they are about 6 weeks at least, and you should keep them segregated until they are similar size. Then the new ones can either stand up for themselves or outrun the older girls. If the bigger girls are youngsters themselves let us know
Have you tried having them together yet? I have a similar situation. 3 of mine are 6 weeks old and in their coop.... and i have 4 who are 3 weeks old. I had them all together in the run the other day and it was fine. The next day i tried and the big girls were more agressive. They pecked at them and went after them if the little ones got in their way or on "their" side. Yesterday i had them all out in the yard "free ranging" and they did fine. My concern is that the bigger girls are in their coop and will have it to themselves for 2-3 weeks and might be agressive at the interlopers..... I think if there is a way for you to have them seperated that might work. Let me know!
Quote:My big girls are about 4 months now. I was thinking of putting the little ones in a small cage inside the coop that way they could have access to their own food and water and also started becoming integrated with the big girls without actually coming into contact with them, i.e, getting into fights and being harrassed by the bigger ones. I have not really introduced them yet, but they have seen each other a few times. I hope this method works because I want to let the little ones get a chance to be "outside" and have some more space out of their brooder.
Fence off a smaller portion of your existing run and house them so they can see each other. I'd wait till there around 8-10 weeks. Then they are big enough to handle the butt whoop-in they may receive.
Thanks for the replies everyone! I went ahead and moved the babies in, putting them in their own area so they're safe but still able to interact with my big girls. Everyone's doing fine!
I've got two large dog kennels in my large run that I put the older batch in until they were big enough that a rat snake didn't think they were dinner (I had bird netting over the kennels) - I have a cornish who went broody on me and last Sat. presented me with 9 babies. I think I'm going to put them in the dog kennels when they get bigger and let them integrate just like you are doing. This run is covered and I feel like they are safer in there. There are RIR and Black Sexlinks in there - I sure hope they get along. If not I may just let this new batch free range with the other chickens - the hawk will be thrilled. Does anyone know what the percentage of male to females hatchlings are - or if there is even a percentage. I sure don't need 8 roosters.
