Please advise on complex chick group integration...

[StPaulieGirls]

Anyone have ideas about the following situation:

We currently have three groups of chicks on the farm.
1. Two chicks (4 weeks old) with their mama hen, who hatched them out, currently in a hoop coop together
2. Twenty chicks (3 weeks old) that we incubated, currently in a 4'x4' brooder
3. Three chicks (3 weeks old) in a hospital cage, because one of them is recovering (quite well) from botulism (pro tip - no honey for baby chicks or baby people - we were sweetening an herbal supplement recipe according to someone's FB post). Two were to keep the little guy company.

We really need to reduce the craziness around here. The chick that was ill is doing very well, though behind in size, because he ate from a dropper for three days. They need out of that hospital cage and we need them out of the house. The chicks in the brooder are looking good, but the space is getting crowded. We don't want them to beat up the three absentees, especially the little guy that we put so much time into.

Questions:

• Would you reintegrate the three isolated chicks into the current brooder, or wait until we move everyone to a grow-out pen? How old are chicks when they start bullying new/small birds?
• What would happen if we put 23 chicks in with the mama and her two babies? Would she attack them? We'd put supplemental heat in for them.
• Would the mama's two chicks do okay if we added them to the group of 23 and put the hen back in with the grown flock?

Other ideas about how we can reduce the number of heaters we're running and waterers that we're filling?

Thanks for helping us choose a path.

 

[Altairsky]

I have a mama hen with 5 2week old babies. The dominant hen adopted the babies and she is raising them together with their mother. I need to integrate 6 2months old chicks from my incubator and there is absolutely no way. I need to wait until the mama's babies are gone before I can let the incubated chicks in the same coop.
For now, they free range fine, but they must spend the night separated.
Tl;dr if there are broodies with babies, it's extremely hard to integrate new chicks.

 

[igorsMistress]

I would suggest you integrate the 3 with the 20, get everyone outside and introduce the mama and chicks to the 23 through wire. Mamas know who their chicks are and may harm the others that approach. Don’t take the babies from mama, you’ll upset all of them.

Once mama and babies have spent some time getting to know the others and she stops mothering hers for the most part then let the chicks mingle and see how it goes. I would do at least two weeks of getting to know through wire.