I am very pleased to say that after about 3 weeks of living separated but in close proximity, my 8 week old chicks and my 2 four-year old hens spent the afternoon together with very little drama!
Seriously, I had been losing sleep over it and I am so glad it worked out so well. The chicks actually were bold and obnoxious at first, then quickly discovered that was not acceptable and were taken down a notch. I thought the hens were quite fair and tolerant, with the expected bossiness about the food and water and maybe a peck here or there. Whew!!! Thank you all for your many suggestions. Tonight I have put them each back on their separate sides of the coop, mostly so I can relax and get some sleep! Tomorrow I go to work. Do I dare leave them all together tomorrow or should they only be together when I can supervise for a few days? Since the older girls seem to have accepted them, is it a done deal or do they often change their minds and decide to abuse them even though they have spent some quality time together? Thanks for sharing your experiences. I'm just a little concerned because the youngsters are still quite a bit smaller.
