NEED help with deciding on when to fully-intigrate babies!!!!

[ChickenWisperer]

Ive got a small flock - 7 hens, 1 roo, of adults - But, Ive got 8 babies to intigrate (supposedly all pullets).

The kids are going to be 2 months old on christmas eve. The hens are all 8 months - 1 year, except one RIR hen who is over 1 yr, but not older than 2. The roo is a Cuckoo marans, very calm boy. He isnt aggressive at all, he does dance for the ladies ALOT - and is rough with them, but its because hes just now learning how to mount (poor guy). He doesnt mount that often, from what we can see, though.

They have a outside coop, with a large run attached.

Im going to begin supervised visits soon - on the days its warm enough. The babies will be in a protective cage, and I will be present. How long should there be visits before permanent move-in? And they are downstairs, and havent been outside yet due to the weather.

But im just not sure when its safe to actually move them out, permanently, to the henhouse. And I do have one little baby, a brahma, who is runt-ish........



Any and all help is appreciated! ^_^

 

[william9792]

well i have RIR's roo's and hens, i just put two new 8 week olds in pen with them and keep a eye on them for two days and it went just fine, but for them two days at night they came back inside, just to be safe.

 

[onthespot]

I had a mix aged batch of youngsters I gradually integrated into a flock of one roo and four hens. I penned them separately in a wire cage. My run has three levels, the floor, the top of the den box, and the flat area on top of the other pen inside the run (for broodies) and I put the babies on the middle level so they would instantly have some "status" and be safe. I left them there for about a week, then gradually started opening the cage, let them out to peck around on top of the den box, let the girls come up and eat they baby food, take a few pecks here and there at the babies, and then gradually increased their time together. Then I made their place bigger with cross woven plastic panels from the garden section of Home Depot, so they could get their headhs through both ways and share food and waterers, get and give more pecks, and finally just let them out, but closed them separate in the evening. Then after a few days of that, I just put out several extra waters and feed pans and let 'em rip. No one got hurt. I probably was over cautious, but they are my first Copper Black Marans babies otu of very dark eggs, so I wasn't about to take any chances. I wanted them OUT before the weather turned, so they could acclimate. They seem to be doing fine, even with the cold weather we have been having lateley, even below freezing.

 

[Mahonri]

I'm a believer that they almost need to be 16 weeks unless they've been growing up with the older hens, otherwise they'll really get picked on. At 16 weeks they can run and take it better.

 

[colby318]

Hi! You'll have to keep me updated with how this works out for you. I've 51 GLW pullets in the basement pen. They're a week behind yours in age. Our basement is 60 degrees but you know it's 8 degrees outside tonight where we are!
My wyandottes will be mixed with 13 adult EEs. I thought there would be safety in numbers. Maybe they would overwhelm their elders so no one chick would be piled on.

Colby in Stamping Ground, KY (north of Georgetown)

 

[onthespot]

I had seven pullets, so I figured their numbers would help them, kind of like a herd of zebras, they could mingle and if someone was picking on one, they would lose track. So far so good. I wouldn't do it if there were fewer babies than adults. Plus some of these babies are HUGE and look like hens already, and cluck instead of peep.

 

[allisojo]

Several weeks ago I integrated - perhaps wrongly - some eight-week-olds with some sixteen-week-olds. The older ones aren't as old as yours, but they were considerably bigger than the young'uns. I supervised at first, but then left them on their own. It took about one day for them all to roost together and about five days for them to be able to hang in the yard together without the young ones being chased all over creation. It's been a month and everyone is happy and healthy. I'm looking for eggs soon from the older ones!

 

[ChickenWisperer]

Thanks so much for the replies, everybody! ^_^



I was pretty sure that since there will be 8 babies and 8 adults, it would be hard to single out any-one given youngster! And besides - the Cochins are HUGE and so are the EEs - heck, the EEs are already clucking and whatnot!


Im thinking perhaps I'll take a month for supervised visits - and see what to do from there. I'll keep everyone up-to-date.

PS - Happy Holidays everyone!

 

[ChandlersChickens]

Let me know how that goes. I haven't put my 2 outside yet, but I did have to bring the older 2 inside for a couple days. We had some really bad weather and it was too cold in their coop.
So they were next to each other for those few days...just seperated by chicken wire. At least now they have been introduced.