I'm scared to death like the first day of school... seriously. First let me say I lost my favorite EE to a cat about 2 weeks ago, RIP Eddie, she was the sweetest of all my hens and my personal buddie (always sat on my shoulder and talked to me). She was chased and got caught up in an area that I have since cleaned up, it had extra chicken wire, linolium and stuff like that and she ran behind the shed to hide but that was her demise
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I am scared because I am integrating my 12 week old EE's with the rest of my 30 weekers. I have a small flock but friendly flock, HAD it worked out to my two roo's (both Cochins) would have 10 girls (counting my 3 youngest when they are old enough) well anyway I started out around 6 weeks having them out with everyone for an hour or so in a cage to they could see each other. Two weeks ago I attempted letting the 3 girls run in the backyard with everyone else and actually it went pretty good. One of my Roo's Rugar is very gentle and good with younger girls he kept everyone away and they were able to play. Did this off and on with pretty normal expected results small amount of pecking and if my 3 got scared I opened the back door and they came inside
They are soooo sweet.
Well last night I couldn't take it anymore, the feather dust was making me sneeze so bad and I had a rough day soooo I bit the bullet. Pulled out my big dog kennel got it in the covered run and there they are now. I looked at the forecast and it was supposed to stay in the 60's at night well that changed to 47 tonight. Do I have to heat them at 12 weeks? They are feathered out completely and actually big for their age, well bigger than my sweet Eddie was at that age. This is how I integrated my 2 Marans with the rest of the flock. So I didn't think twice about using the same method, they eat next to each other and see each other and I did it at night.
So what do you think, Will Abe, Cinnamon and Blondie be ok? Temperature wise? And with younger ones how long do you keep them visible but separate?
Thank you sure this has been posted already but I like to post and get your responses.
I am scared because I am integrating my 12 week old EE's with the rest of my 30 weekers. I have a small flock but friendly flock, HAD it worked out to my two roo's (both Cochins) would have 10 girls (counting my 3 youngest when they are old enough) well anyway I started out around 6 weeks having them out with everyone for an hour or so in a cage to they could see each other. Two weeks ago I attempted letting the 3 girls run in the backyard with everyone else and actually it went pretty good. One of my Roo's Rugar is very gentle and good with younger girls he kept everyone away and they were able to play. Did this off and on with pretty normal expected results small amount of pecking and if my 3 got scared I opened the back door and they came inside
Well last night I couldn't take it anymore, the feather dust was making me sneeze so bad and I had a rough day soooo I bit the bullet. Pulled out my big dog kennel got it in the covered run and there they are now. I looked at the forecast and it was supposed to stay in the 60's at night well that changed to 47 tonight. Do I have to heat them at 12 weeks? They are feathered out completely and actually big for their age, well bigger than my sweet Eddie was at that age. This is how I integrated my 2 Marans with the rest of the flock. So I didn't think twice about using the same method, they eat next to each other and see each other and I did it at night.
So what do you think, Will Abe, Cinnamon and Blondie be ok? Temperature wise? And with younger ones how long do you keep them visible but separate?
Thank you sure this has been posted already but I like to post and get your responses.
