Opinion needed on Integration - 3 adult birds, 4 older chicks, 21 chicks, and ? poults

[MrsWinterWheat]

I need help making a plan to transition everyone into one flock.

Current ages and locations:

Main coop, access to run, and free ranging
3 year old rooster
3 year old Guinea Fowl (male)
4 year old Turkey (female)
They are my only left after a very hard and traumatic winter. I had raccoons take out the rest of the flock. They have been together since the rooster and Guinea were chicks. They get along very well, in fact they don’t go anywhere on the farm without each other.

Smaller Pen:
Four - 5 week old chicks
Pretty sure they are 2 roosters and 2 hens. Their pen is located inside the main coop they can see the adult flock but not interact. They also have access to a run outside, it does go out in the same run as the main coop. But like the inside pen they can only see the adults but no physical contact.

Brooder:
Twenty one - 2-3 day old chicks who are from our local peavey mart who gets them from Hoover’s Hatchery.
They are hanging out with each other no idea of male or female but most should be female if their 90% is right. They are a mixture of breeds labelled from the hatchery as Americana, Gold Laced Wyandottes, Easter Egger, Starlight Green Egger™, Cream Legbar, Midnight Majesty Marans™, and Sapphire Olive Egger.

Incubator:
Hatching Ridley Bronze Turkeys
Currently 3 hatched, 2 externally pip, and 1 rocking their eggs. After they are all hatched or at least fluffy they will head to their own brooder for bit but if I see they are struggling to eat I might pop them in with the chicks in the other brooder. I heard that sometimes they need tutors to eat/drink.

My issue comes with how long I should keep them in the brooder and where they go from there. I have a few options.

1. Keep them in the brooder till they can go in the small pen with the 4 chicks mentioned above. But how old should the chicks/turkeys be?

2. Wait till the 4 chicks are big enough and incorporate them with the adults. Then move the chicks/turkey to the smaller pen. But how old should the current 5 weekers be?

3. Kick the adult outside in the run and give the chicks, turkey, and the 4 chicks the main coop and have the small pen as a refuge for the chicks/turkey to get away from the 4 bigger chicks. How old should they be when that happens?

Depending on above when would it be safe to let them be with the adult birds? I would keep the small pen in a way that the chicks could get in but not the adults.

Thanks for the help!

 

[aart]

I would start integrating the older chicks now.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/integrating-new-birds-at-4-weeks-old.72603/
Put the younger chicks in proximity to the rest of the flock,
once they are ~4 weeks old make an access door(s) into the main coop and run.
I hope your main coop and run are large.

I had 3 age groups like this once, it was a PITA, would never do again.

 

[FrostRanger]

Depending on how big your temporary enclosure is and how quickly they integrate you might have to swap the adults and the babies. I ended up having to do that 'cause the small run under the prefab coop I was using to separate the chicks from my adult was quickly getting too small and I came to the conclusion that since there are seven chicks and only one adult, it'd be better if I just let the chicks take the big run and let Parsley stay in the small run (Parsley was a semi-aggressive easter egger who sadly passed from what I can only guess as a heart attack a month and a half ago and at the time she wasn't tolerating them enough where I felt comfortable leaving them together). Sure, Parsley wasn't terribly happy about it, but it did keep everyone safe until Parsley tolerated them better. Just do what's best for the flock as a whole

 

[MrsWinterWheat]

I would start integrating the older chicks now.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/integrating-new-birds-at-4-weeks-old.72603/
Put the younger chicks in proximity to the rest of the flock,
once they are ~4 weeks old make an access door(s) into the main coop and run.
I hope your main coop and run are large.

I had 3 age groups like this once, it was a PITA, would never do again.

Thank you for the link! It definitely is a PITA!

 

[MrsWinterWheat]

Thought I would update how the integration went.
The chicks and the new turkeys went in the same brooder when the turkeys could hold their own against the chicks.

The 5 week old chicks stayed separate from the older ones till they were 6 weeks and then they were allowed to go in and out a safe space. No real issues integrating.

The new chicks and turkeys stayed in the brooder till they were 4 weeks. Then they went in the smaller pen where they could see each other but no physical contact. I let them integrate (with safe space) at 5 weeks. Some used the safe space up until last week (so 8 weeks). The middle age chicks had the biggest issue with the new comers, mostly the turkeys but it didn’t take long for the turkeys to out grow them. I think there were an overwhelming amount of the younger chicks that it prevented being picked on too much.

Everyone is doing well…except I guess the older rooster. He started to get increasingly aggressive, to the point he attacked my husband and caused a joint infection (his spur went between the joint in my husband’s wrist). So unfortunately he had to leave. But I have a nice looking starlight green egger that looks like a rooster.