New Girls

[stephaniemiko]

We have two 12 week old chicks (we had three, but one chose to greet the morning with a cokadoodledoo, so he was re-homed). Today we got two 10 week old chicks to take his place. We have the two new girls in a cage in the pen. They can all see each other . . . how do we put them together? I was thinking spending the night separate, then just having them all together when I open the coop in the morning. What do you think?? I am VERY new at this, and I don't want anyone to get hurt. The new girls are a little bit smaller than the two existing birds. Thanks for your input!!--Steph

 

[five is my dog]

sneak them in a night

 

[troy4]

sneak them in a night

Well you can easily awake the chicks and chicks normally don't fight like they would if they were grown hens so one day just put them in there either during the day or when every body's heading up in to the coop. If they do get a little pushy that's fine trust me they won't fight much, and its best to put them in there at 500 a clock because then they will have a little time to get to know each other. Good thing you have more younger chicks they do better in groups, but the bigger ones may take shots at the younger ones. Out of all I think you'll do GREAT! But just so you know since their 10 week old chicks they may fight back, ya never know.

 

[BCMaraniac]

We have two 12 week old chicks (we had three, but one chose to greet the morning with a cokadoodledoo, so he was re-homed). Today we got two 10 week old chicks to take his place. We have the two new girls in a cage in the pen. They can all see each other . . . how do we put them together? I was thinking spending the night separate, then just having them all together when I open the coop in the morning. What do you think?? I am VERY new at this, and I don't want anyone to get hurt. The new girls are a little bit smaller than the two existing birds. Thanks for your input!!--Steph

First of all, let me say I have WAY too many chickens.

I have a group of seven 13 week old pullets and cockerels, and I needed to integrate four 6 week old cockerels with them(two incubator hatched and two broody raised that had never been together). Fortunately, I had the room to do this......but what I did was put all of them together in a new pen at the same time during the day so I could watch....so it was nobody's turf. There was very little squabbling. What did happen, however, was at bedtime the 4 young ones stayed together, and the older ones stayed together.

I think in my case, the new pen plus their age made the integration easier.

I think the old adage, "There is safety in numbers" is true with chickens. I believe a single chicken integrated with a flock is much more susceptible to being picked on....because every single member of the flock thinks it has to remind it that they are above them in the pecking order.

I think the fact in your case that the numbers are equal (two of each) plus their age will make it very easy to integrate.

 

[troy4]

First of all, let me say I have WAY too many chickens.

I have a group of seven 13 week old pullets and cockerels, and I needed to integrate four 6 week old cockerels with them(two incubator hatched and two broody raised that had never been together). Fortunately, I had the room to do this......but what I did was put all of them together in a new pen at the same time during the day so I could watch....so it was nobody's turf. There was very little squabbling. What did happen, however, was at bedtime the 4 young ones stayed together, and the older ones stayed together.

I think in my case, the new pen plus their age made the integration easier.

I think the old adage, "There is safety in numbers" is true with chickens. I believe a single chicken integrated with a flock is much more susceptible to being picked on....because every single member of the flock thinks it has to remind it that they are above them in the pecking order.

I think the fact in your case that the numbers are equal (two of each) plus their age will make it very easy to inte

If I didn't say that I had sum girls who were sum weeks old and I had already bought six chicks later a couple of weeks later I went and bought six more there were to young black chicks since they were so small they got beat up just a little,but don't worry they just get pecked for at least one week!