Needing info on introducing 8 week old chicks

[renaenae]

I have 6 eight week old chicks that are currently living in a temporary coop. I am soon going to need to introduce them to my 7 one year old hens. We kept the chicks in the brooder for 3 weeks, put them in the temp coop for 3 weeks, then we moved that temp coop to beside my chicken yard for my older chickens. they had been there one week. in this spot the fence for the temp coop is right along the older hens fence. Once they got used to the chicks being there, today we put our chicks into a chicken tractor (chicken wire box basically) into the chicken yard for the day. The hens didn't even notice them other than the fact that the chicks had food. my permanent coop is designed in a weird way apparently so there is no way for me to divide the actual coop up (part chickens, part chicks). what do i do at this point. i don't need a blood bath. i'd love for things to go smoothly. my adult hens are pretty friendly. the will come up to you, but they don't like being held. But, that's with people--they do fine with my cats that have decided to take daily strolls through the chicken yard--they all get along beautifully--so i'm trying to convince myself the hens will be fine with the chicks, but you never know. Any advice would be greatly appreciated....

 

[miss_thenorth]

If they have been able to see each other for a few days, then you should be able to just let them out with the older chickens. Your older ones won't even really pay attention to them--they are clique-y like that. The older girls will hang out together, and the younger ones will too. Just like highschool. Once in a while there might be acuffle of two, but it won't happen for a long while,a nd it is usually about pecking order. It will be fine. I do this every year, and I will be doing it again in about 5 weeks.Don't sweat it.

 

[renaenae]

Thanks for the info. We have one hen that is interested in them, but they have food and water in the yard in the tractor. the hens food and water is in the coop. She only pays attention to them by the food and water. Anyways....i think we'll give it a shot tomorrow for a little bit and see how it goes. Thanks for the info....