Need more hens

[BDutch]

I am getting two day olds in May, to integrate with my 2 almost year old hens. I plan on doin the see no touch, but any suggestions on what age to put them out there ? And wondering when I intergrate them if they'll need help figuring out the roosting spots

As you could read there is not a one fits all solution for integrating.
When the chicks grow up, best provide in a few roosts in the run to practice/play.
I would add a roost in their own chick coop. Try to let them roost at about 2 months is okay for most breeds.

Most chicks/young pullets like to copy the behaviour of the adults and will roost by themselves when they feel confident. If there is no stress /no serious quarrelling at roosting time, you can put the young pullets on the roost at dusk/after dark after integrating.

 

[rosemarythyme]

If you're getting full grown (or even POL birds), as far as quarantine: https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...nderestimated-part-of-raising-chickens.67097/ - the recommendation is 4 weeks, housed 100 ft from your flock, with full clothing changes in between.

If you get chicks from an established hatchery, the chance of biosecurity breaches is much lower, and most of us skip a formal quarantine process in that case.

I think integrating chicks is pretty easy IF you have the space to raise them with the flock or next to the flock. My chicks are brooded outdoors and by 2 weeks start meeting the adults face to face, by 4 weeks they're off heat and moved into the coop. My set up: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/short-on-time-recycle-a-prefab-brooder.73985/

 

[Angelpc]

I wouldn’t recommend adding 2 month old chicks to an existing flock. It takes some experience to learn about chicken behaviour and to know when you have to intervene.

3 months old is easier, but still fight over feed and at roost time. You have this every time you add newbies to your flock.
I probably would add 4-6 young pullets, after a few weeks of quarantine with see cant touch. Also provide in several feeding spots and a roost spot in snother part of the coop or a second coop.

Adding a prefab coop/run with a door in between might be a nice temporarily solution.

Where do you live? If you live in the US or Canada, in a cold climate right now, best wait till spring.

I’m in Florida, although we are proabably still waiting closer to spring

 

[Angelpc]

When you add more hens to the flock, no matter age try and do see but don’t touch time after quarantine. That will help the integration process to go smoother. I have heard that Rhode Island Red breed can be a little more on the spicy side when it comes to adding new hens but every hen is different so I can’t say if yours are gonna react good or bad to new hens

How far apart do they need to be for quarantine?

 

[Brooks_]

How far apart do they need to be for quarantine?

More space than you have or would like to commit to. With no science to back it up, 100 yards. I suggest chicks from a hatchery. As much as I do not like supporting them, they are the best chance of maintaining biosecurity.

 

[Firsttimehens1234]

How far apart do they need to be for quarantine?

Far,far apart, as far as they can get apart,that is the best.
Also try to use different shoes for the birds so one pair of shoes with your new birds and then another pair with your flock.
That is because if the new hens should get sick you are not cross contaminating so your old flock also gets sick

 

[Ridgerunner]

How far apart do they need to be for quarantine?

Far enough apart (or maybe in separate buildings) so mosquitoes cannot fly from one to the other (mosquitoes spread fowl pox) or the wind cannot carry bits of feathers or dry skin to the others (Marek's spreads on the wind). That's about as good a quarantine as you can get.

Most of us can't manage that but most chickens don't have Fowl Pox or Marek's. The better you isolate them, whether that is by distance or housing some in buildings, the better your quarantine. Even if you cannot protect them from everything the better you isolate them the more things you protect them from.

 

[Bountiful Farmhouse]

People do this different ways. What is best for one may not be best for someone else, but mostly it's doing it in a way that works for you. One big factor in any of these methods is how much room you have. In feet or meters, how big is your coop? Your run? Photos of what they look like could be useful. People that start off with only four often don't have enough room to integrate more. Integration takes more room than housing them after they are integrated.

Chicks from a standard hatchery should be disease and parasite free. To me, those are extremely safe. Chicks from a feed store are from a hatchery so are most likely safe, I'd not worry about disease or parasites from them but there is a slight possibility they could catch something from people that have chickens just walking by. Any others have the possibility of having a disease or parasites, especially if they have recently been around chickens not from their flock.

One method to counter this is quarantine. Chicken diseases and parasites can spread by chickens sharing the same ground, eating and drinking from the same bowls, by birds or insects like mosquitoes or grasshoppers, or on the wind. They can be spread on your clothing as you go back and forth between them, especially your shoes. Very few of us have the facilities for a good quarantine. We just can't isolate them that well. But if you decide to quarantine do the best you can.

Regardless of the age you get there are some generic things you can do. Housing them across wire so they can get used to each other without being able to hurt each other is helpful. When you try to merge them give them as much room as you can. You can sometimes improve the quality of what room you have by adding clutter. That means giving them things they can hide under, behind, or over. Providing widely scattered feed and water stations (hopefully out of line of sight) can help reduce conflict. Try to let them work things out at their pace instead of forcing them to share a tight space is good.

If you add mature hens that is basically it. If you add POL (Point of Lay) pullets they probably are not fully mature. They may need more separation than mature hens but will eventually blend in. If you add chicks, whether just hatched at a hatchery or older from another source it generally takes longer. Until they mature the older hens outrank them on the pecking order and are likely to peck them if the chicks invade their personal space. POL pullets can suffer the same because they are not fully mature. Most of mine seem to mature enough about the time they start to lay.

My brooder is in the coop and has wire sides. The chicks pretty much grow up with the flock. When they hit five weeks I just open the brooder door and they are integrated. A key for this to work is that I have a lot of room in the coop and outside. An 8' x 12' coop and over 3,000 square feet outside. Most backyard flocks are not going to have that kind of room. Another key is that I have the weather where they can be outside all day every day when I am integrating so they are not forced to be together in a tight space. What I do won't likely work for you but I don't know what weather you will have when you try this or how much room you have.

People integrate chicks of all ages to their flock of mature hens. There are tricks and methods we use to make this go easier. If we knew how much room you have and what they look like we may be able to come up with specific suggestions for you.

Can you post a pic of the brooder you use please?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I wish I could. I lost my photos in a computer crash and moved so I can't take more.

It was 3' wide x 6' long x 2' tall positioned under my main roosts. The top was plywood which was my droppings board. The sides were 1" welded wire mesh (looked like hardware cloth but technically hardware cloth is no larger than 1/2" mesh). If I were building it again I'd use 1/2" hardware cloth as a snake big enough to eat a chick was able to get inside. The floor was 1/2" hardware cloth elevated about 2' off of the coop floor. I put plastic bins under it to collect the poop as it fell through. I put a skirt of plastic around the bottom to stop any wind or breeze from coming in under the chicks and to keep the hens from laying among the bins underneath. I've raised as many as 28 chicks in it until they were 5 weeks old.

Any brooder with wire mesh sides where they can see each other should work.

 

[RojoMarz]

Can you post a pic of the brooder you use please?

Here is a picture of our poopboard with area underneath. Not a great angle, but hopefully gives an idea.