question about adding more birds to my flock

[chickenmomma6]

I new to chicken owning. so how do i add more hens to my flock. i have five 13 week old hens and one 13 week old rooster. please any advise would be helpful.

 

[Mrs. K]

They call this chicken math and nearly all of have been bitten. Often times it does not work well.
I would wait a year. Until you see how the birds you have fit in your coop/run. They are not full grown and what seems to be more than enough room now, very shortly might not be enough room. What seems huge amounts of space for young birds, rapidly becomes not enough space for full grown birds.

Measure your set up. Do not think free ranging will help. It is nice to let them out, but a couple of hours will do nothing for their behavior. Maybe you do have a big enough set up, but this forum is filled with posts where the birds were raised together, got along well, then all at once begin vicious fighting and pecking.... they have outgrown their set up.

6 x4 = 24 sq feet.... so either 8x3 x6 coop, or a 6x4 x6 coop would fit what you have. If you have a coop that are only 4 feet high, I would go with less birds. Do not add more birds unless your set up is bigger than this.

So if you have a bigger coop, well then you can add hideouts in the coop and in the run. Make sure they are not traps, separate but able to see each other are also good strategies.

Mrs. K

 

[PirateGirl]

I also recommend waiting, but for different reasons. If you get birds next year or the year after you will have birds of different ages so you will have birds that slow down production at different times. You won't lose all your layers at once. They may go into molt at different times. They may go broody at different times. If you are in it for egg production then you are more likely to have eggs more of the year if your flock is staggered. If you are in it for meat, then having different age birds will help keep your freezer full more of the year and you won't be processing all at once.

Waiting will give you more time to research integration and more time to research different breeds. It will give your current birds time to grow and you will be able to see which breeds you like the personality of best over the next year. You will also see which breeds are the best producers (eggs or meat) over the next year. You might even have one go broody and you can research and decide if you want to let one of your chickens hatch eggs for you sometime in the next year instead of buying more chicks.

Here are a few articles on integration.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ldnt-resist-chicks-from-the-farm-store.73677/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/integrating-chickens-step-by-step.72815/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/how-to-integrate-your-chicken-flock-the-easy-way.63034/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/integrating-new-birds-at-4-weeks-old.72603/

 

[aart]

I new to chicken owning. so how do i add more hens to my flock. i have five 13 week old hens and one 13 week old rooster. please any advise would be helpful.

Welcome to BYC!
You've gotten good advice already, but I'll throw in a couple more thoughts.
What is your goal for keeping chickens?
They can be like chocolates or potato chips, you just gotta have more!
But beware too many birds can make for huge problems, and integration can be tricky.

Do you want more females to meet a male/female ratio that you've seen somewhere?

Do you really have space for more birds?
Dimensions of your coop and run, in feet by feet with pics, would be good to know.

FYI.....semantics, maybe, but can be important communication terms when discussing chicken behavior.
Female chickens are called pullets until one year of age, then they are called hens.
Male chickens are called cockerels until one year of age, then they are called cocks(or cockbirds or roosters).
Age in weeks or months is always a good thing to note.


Where in this world are you located?
Climate is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, then it's always there!

 

[Ridgerunner]

A lot of us integrate new chickens all the time without any serious drama but others have real issues. There are different things that contribute to that. One huge factor is room. That's why we often want to know (in feet or meters) how big your coops and runs are and how they are tied together. The relative ages of the groups you are trying to integrate makes a difference too, partly in techniques and partly in what a successful integration looks like. If they are all the same age they can be integrated into one unit but if one is less mature than another then a successful integration basically means they are not harming each other but they maintain two separate flocks until they all mature.

How much patience do you have? Slow and gradual often works better than just tossing them together. At least you just want to add females, that should be easier than adding more males. When do you want to add them, immediately or later and why? What's most important about this is the ages you are talking about. Even your general climate could play a factor, that's why modifying your profile to show general location can help. That way the information is always available. How many are you talking about adding?

The more you can tell us about your situation the more likely we can give you a response that is tailored to your situation. And maybe by knowing why we can offer suggestions to make it easier or better for you.