New chick wants to be part of the flock

[Mahonri]

I'm worried about that myself. I have some 7 week olds that do OK for part of the day, but I separate them for most of it. I have some 20 week olds that I also have to separate from the 10 months olds. The 20 weekers are starting to accept the 7 week olds but then I have some week old chicks that will eventually need to be integrated too.

I'm thinking I'm not going to get any more little ones until I have a number of separate pens.

 

[wings]

I heard that it helps to have more little chicks than big chickens if you're trying to integrate them into the flock.

I'll be interested to hear other people's experiences, because I will have that same problem in about 6 months.

 

[badgerpendous]

Quote:
We had the little one in with the big ones out in the pen in the yard for over an hour yesterday and the day before. They hardly pecked the little one at all yesterday.

Being first time chicken-ers, we're really running into headaches/problems and I'm sure we're doing things the hard way, but we're muddling through and having a great time.

We're starting to think that one of the two older ones is a he. I hope to take some photos later this morning and post them and ask for some help sexing them.

 

[badgerpendous]

I did post some pictures of them in a thread on the "What gender/breed?" forum.

We've had them together for hours at a time now without any incidents, so we're really happy about that.

The issue now is that the little one is not really large enough to sleep outside in the coop yet. Or is it?



Last night, the older birds spent their first night in the coop, while lil' CheepersV spent the night in a warm cage with a light in the garage. It was not happy about being separated from the flock!

I'm tempted to let them all snuggle up in the coop one night. Maybe next weekend.

 

[Rufflemyfeathers]

I had some red sex link chicks that gave away but before I decided to do that I tried putting with my RIW few weeks difference in age and it was no go.. they went after the chicks..my guess is like others have said on few of these threads is to wait till little older and slide them in there. I will have to do that with two ages of BA which are 3 weeks apart in age..so when the younger ones get little bigger going to try then..

 

[ArizonaDesertChicks]

Quote:
I believe you need to keep the little one under a heat lamp until it is at least 6 weeks old and fully feathered. You start at 90 or 95 degrees when they are first hatched and lower the temperature 5 degrees per week until they have enough feathers to keep themselves warm without the extra heat.

I think you should also make sure the bigger chicks are not pecking at the little one at all before leaving it with them unattended. It looks like they are all getting along pretty good, but still be careful. I can tell this little chick means a lot to you and your little girl and you don't want an unfortunate accident. Be sure to post an update when they're all three living & sleeping together as a flock -- another cute picture would be great too.