New here :-) duckling and chick and 1 year old chicken mom

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Kibou

Kibou

Chirping
Mar 8, 2016
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Hi!

We got our first chicken last spring and just got some more and 2 ducklings too a couple of weeks ago.
The big girls are 2 golden sexlinks and 1 production red.
The new babies is 2 buff orpingtons, 3 australtorps, 3 amerucana and 3 cornish rocks. The 2 ducklings probably are Pekin.

I am already getting ready to put the babies outside...they try very hard to escape the big brooder box, but am not sure how to get the introductions of the big and small ones in order the best and safest way. So do anyone have some suggestions?
 
How old are the chicks and ducks? I usually try and let them see each other threw a fence. You can also put the babies in a cage inside the coop for about a week. If the babies are less then 2 months old I wouldn't try it yet. The older ones are going to pick on them for a while but if they get used to seeing them it will make it a lot easier. I sectioned off my coop and put a screen door up so they could see each other. Always supervise the introductions.
 
They are about to turn 3 weeks :) the feathers are coming in nicely :) the ducks will get more freedom then the chick's.. we are going to make them a new larger coop asap.. :)
 
Hi and welcome to BYC. @aart has written some very useful articles on introducing new flock members - if you search for this member, I would have thought that the articles will be somewhere!

If you check out the Learning Centre, you'll find a whole host of resources on all things chicken and duck.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center

Your state thread is worth joining as you will get to know other BYC members in your area (https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/270925/find-your-states-thread). In fact, the search box should become your best friend
cid:72343587-E4D5-49FE-ABD9-FC042197A8B2
Lastly but by no means least, the members here are amazing - very friendly and helpful, so if you need an answer to a question or simply want some reassurance that what you are doing is ok, then post away - we all help each other out here at BYC.

All the best
CT
 
I don't know much about ducks......but here's my spiel on chicken integration:


Here's some notes I've taken on integration that I found to be very helpful.......
......take what applies or might help and ignore the rest.
See if any of them, or the links provided at the bottom, might offer some tips that will assist you in your situation:

Integration of new chickens into flock.

Consider medical quarantine:
BYC Medical Quarantine Article
Poultry Biosecurity
BYC 'medical quarantine' search

It's about territory and resources(space/food/water). Existing birds will almost always attack new ones.
Understanding chicken behaviors is essential to integrating new birds into your flock.

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact. Integrating new birds of equal size works best.

The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide out of line of sight and/or up and away from any bully birds.

In adjacent runs, spread scratch grains along the dividing mesh, best of mesh is just big enough for birds to stick their head thru, so they get used to eating together.

Another option, if possible, is to put all birds in a new coop and run, this takes the territoriality issues away.

For smaller chicks I used a large wire dog crate right in the coop for the smallers. I removed the crate door and put up a piece of wire fencing over the opening and bent up one corner just enough for the smallers to fit thru but the biggers could not. Feed and water inside the crate for the smallers. Make sure the smallers know how to get in and out of the crate opening before exposing them to the olders. this worked out great for me, by the time the crate was too small for the them to roost in there(about 3 weeks), they had pretty much integrated themselves to the olders. If you have too many smallers to fit in a crate you can partition off part of the coop with a wire wall and make the same openings for smallers escape.

Best example ever of chick respite and doors by azygous
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1069595/introducing-chicks-to-adults#post_16276224


Read up on integration..... BYC advanced search>titles only>integration
This is good place to start reading:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock
 
The best way to integrate chicks to older birds is the "Look but don't touch method." integration. I think you can find it through the search box.
 
Thanks for all the great replys! :)

We have more hardware cloth and 2x2's...so we'll build a daycare coop for them :) we have a new bigger coop on the drawing/planning board for building this spring... so we'll integrate a daycare brooder possibility to it for later batches of babies to stay safely with the big girls from the start :) I assume that's the easiest way :)
 

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