Puting new birds in with the old flock...Help

[TaraBellaBirds]

If you have doubts for the little ones safety it is probably best to wait until the little ones are close to the same size as the adult birds. I personally tend to introduce my babies before the suggested times, but I have a huge space, separate brooding room, and my birds free-rage in a treed area almost daily. It is usually best to wait to introduce younger birds until they are no longer making 'chick' sounds.

 

[RosieinKS]

We built a new coop for our 12 chickens after we increased the 7 we had that are a year old with 5 more that were born in April of this year. We built an A frame coop that is 8' X 4' with roosts on both sides, and attached their lay boxes (that open from the outside) to the back of the coop. It has a vent cap at the peak covered with hail screen and 4 playhouse windows (18" X 24"), two on either side for light and ventilation. The older chickens use the roost bars we transferred from the old coop - 2 bars they were use to using. The younger ones got an old ladder from a playground that we tore apart (after our kids outgrew it) and we set it up on the other end of the coop. When we first put the new chickens in with the older ones, we put a gate between the two groups and kept the little ones separated for a couple of weeks so they could get use to one another inside the coop without concern of injury. We haven't had any problems since we waited until the young ones were more than half the size of the older ones to take the gate down. They all free range during the day and I haven't seen any pecking or chasing around the yard. The younger ones spent some time at first under the coop when they were let them out during the day. Even after several weeks of free ranging, they seem to spend more time under trees and bushes, while the older ones roam all over the yard out in the open. We are in the process of building another pen to attach to the new coop, so if we don't get home before dark, they will still be safe from predators. We are using chain link fencing that we will cover with 1/2" hail screen to keep out the bad guys. I think the best predator protection is prayer. We actually haven't had any predators or lost any birds to predators in over a year. We have a border collie that we leave outside when we are gone to help guard the flock.

The old coop that is 4' X 4' is now occupied by our new ducks, two Pekings and two Ruins. The coop has a drawer in the bottom (lined with plastic laminent for a floor that pulls out for cleaning. It has a run and pen attached to it that we made out of our kids old trampoline after the top was destroyed by the weather. We covered the sides of the frame with 1/4" hail screen and used the netting that came with the trampoline like a tent top gathered on a post in the center to protect the birds from something getting in from the top. My husband put a gate on one side of the circle, and an opening that connects it to the run on the other. The trampoline frame is a 12' diameter circle. It makes a great pen for our ducks. The run to the pen is about 8' long and is covered with a tarp for shade.

We insulate floor, walls, and ceiling of our coops with either foam board between exterior siding (it matches our house) and OSB board on the inside, or we use pink fiberglass insulation between the double walls. Kansas winters can be bitter cold with wind chills last winter that were 20 to 30 degrees below zero. We put hail screen or chicken coop wire over the the floor to keep predators from getting in from under the coop.

I have a very handy and talented husband who can build about anything. I do the research and he designs and builds it. I can run a drill, so I screw things together after he tells me what to do. I can measure and cut with a chop saw and run a skill saw when I need to, but he does all the design work. I'm an extra set of hands to help get the project done. I'm content to use scrap material, but he wants it to look good. He's an engineer, so I think he sees any structure on our property as a reflection of his building skills. It costs more and takes more time, but it looks good when he's finished.

Hope that helps - Rosie in KS

 

[brianschickens]

Your coop/run are big enough, once they are getting along lol! But until then you'll need to add places for the youngsters to hide. If you don't have any other options then you might have to try just letting them work it out. You'll just have to watch closely at first and make sure things don't get out of hand.

Something else you can try is to put the young birds in the coop with the lowest ranking older bird and keep the other two out. Once that's going ok for a couple days then add the next bird and finally the top ranking bird. It would take some time and effort but might be easier on the young ones.

Have patience, integration is often hard in small flocks and can take a long time.

If you have doubts for the little ones safety it is probably best to wait until the little ones are close to the same size as the adult birds.  I personally tend to introduce my babies before the suggested times, but I have a huge space, separate brooding room, and my birds free-rage in a treed area almost daily.  It is usually best to wait to introduce younger birds until they are no longer making 'chick' sounds. 

We built a new coop for our 12 chickens after we increased the 7 we had that are a year old with 5 more that were born in April of this year.  We built an A frame coop that is 8' X 4' with roosts on both sides, and attached their lay boxes (that open from the outside) to the back of the coop.  It has a vent cap at the peak covered with hail screen and 4 playhouse windows (18" X 24"), two on either side for light and ventilation.  The older chickens use the roost bars we transferred from the old coop - 2 bars they were use to using.  The younger ones got an old ladder from a playground that we tore apart (after our kids outgrew it) and we set it up on the other end of the coop.  When we first put the new chickens in with the older ones, we put a gate between the two groups and kept the little ones separated for a couple of weeks so they could get use to one another inside the coop without concern of injury.  We haven't had any problems since we waited until the young ones were more than half the size of the older ones to take the gate down.  They all free range during the day and I haven't seen any pecking or chasing around the yard.  The younger ones spent some time at first under the coop when they were let them out during the day.  Even after several weeks of free ranging, they seem to spend more time under trees and bushes, while the older ones roam all over the yard out in the open.  We are in the process of building another pen to attach to the new coop, so if we don't get home before dark, they will still be safe from predators.  We are using chain link fencing that we will cover with 1/2" hail screen to keep out the bad guys.  I think the best predator protection is prayer.  We actually haven't had any predators or lost any birds to predators in over a year.  We have a border collie that we leave outside when we are gone to help guard the flock.  

The old coop that is 4' X 4' is now occupied by our new ducks, two Pekings and two Ruins.  The coop has a drawer in the bottom (lined with plastic laminent for a floor that pulls out for cleaning.  It has a run and pen attached to it that we made out of our kids old trampoline after the top was destroyed by the weather.  We covered the sides of the frame with 1/4" hail screen and used the netting that came with the trampoline like a tent top gathered on a post in the center to protect the birds from something getting in from the top.  My husband put a gate on one side of the circle, and an opening that connects it to the run on the other.  The trampoline frame is a 12' diameter circle.  It makes a great pen for our ducks.  The run to the pen is about  8' long and is covered with a tarp for shade.

We insulate floor, walls, and ceiling of our coops with either foam board between exterior siding (it matches our house) and OSB board on the inside, or we use pink fiberglass insulation between the double walls. Kansas winters can be bitter cold with wind chills last winter that were 20 to 30 degrees below zero.  We put hail screen or chicken coop wire over the the floor to keep predators from getting in from under the coop.     

I have a very handy and talented husband who can build about anything.  I do the research and he designs and builds it.  I can run a drill, so I screw things together after he tells me what to do.  I can measure and cut with a chop saw and run a skill saw when I need to, but he does all the design work.  I'm an extra set of hands to help get the project done.  I'm content to use scrap material, but he wants it to look good.  He's an engineer, so I think he sees any structure on our property as a reflection of his building skills.  It costs more and takes more time, but it looks good when he's finished.

Hope that helps - Rosie in KS   

    

. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP. There is one problem though they are the same size so I can't make hiding places because the "little ones" are either same size or bigger. Any advice considering that? And again thanks so much for taking the time to help me

 

[aart]

Do you have any roosts out in your run?
Or can you put an old table out there.....or a piece of plywood on top of some concrete blocks/saw horses/milk crates/totes or just leaned against the run wall....some old stumps....plastic lawn chairs....

Anything that lets the youngers get up and away or behind something solid(out of sight) from the olders.....my youngers spent months on the roosts and roost boards in the coop during the day while the olders were out in the run. Once I put a roost out in the run the youngers had a place to get up and away from the olders they spent more time out in the run.

Distractions like treats or scratch spread out around the run in many places...or a cabbage hung from a rope......or other objects in the run......new stuff in the run will keep everyone distracted.

 

[cafarmgirl]

DItto what aart said. Anything you can put out in the run where they can get off the ground and get away will help. And give them things to do. Toss in a couple flakes of alfalfa hay and toss some scratch and/or dried meal worms on top of the hay. That will keep them busy a long time "foraging" through all of it and scratching the hay apart. Just spread it out in several locations so they aren't all in one spot.

Since, at this age, they are grown and the same size as the adults, you may just have to do what you can as far as extra roosts and distractions and just let them work things out. Or try keeping the most dominant of the older birds out and put them in one at a time. Sometimes that works very well. Watch them closely and see if one of the older birds maybe is a bully bird who instigates the attacks. If so, pull that bird out for several days or a week and see if the others settle in.

It's all a bit of a pain in the backside, lots of time and effort, but eventually everybody should settle down! Good luck!

 

[brianschickens]

Thanks everybody

 

[Quailfluf]

One thing I have learned over my years of having chickens, is to have a smaller cage or a cage right next to the others pen, and let them see, smell, possibly touch each other. Then after a week let them in the pen with the others. They will have established who they are in the group, but they still might peck each other. That is what I have always done with me ducks/quail/chickens. Best of luck!