Question about my 7 week olds

[jettgirl24]

Hi Guys,

This weekend I integrated my 7 week old babies in with my big girls. They were getting WAY to cramped in their little area and I wanted to let them run around. The girls came in from free ranging and they were all together so I decided to keep an eye to see how it went on Saturday. The integration happened earlier than I was planning but everything is going so well (knock on wood) that I went ahead and left them. There are 8 babies and 3 big girls right now so I think the fact that the big ones are outnumbered has helped so far.

Anyway.... Today I got an email from someone on craigslist who is interested in taking 2 of my roos. Hopefully I'll be getting rid of the 3rd soon as well, and possibly one of my splash hens.... Still trying to decide how many adult birds will be comfortable in my coop & run. If I'm down to 4 or 5 babies do you think they'll still be ok together or should I worry about them when the numbers are closer to even?

 

[azygous]

My first integration was three six-week olds with two adult hens. It went very well from the start.

Your situation is very similar, and I would guess you're going to be safe with your adult hens continuing to be accepting of the youngsters, even if their numbers are diminished

Subsequently, over the past couple years, I haven't been quite so lucky as that first merger. Two years ago I merged ten chicks with five adults, and they were bullied by just one hen. This year, I integrated two batches of chicks, six weeks apart, and both the adults and older chicks have been bullying the youngest.

Anyway, if I were you, I wouldn't be concerned about your big girls suddenly becoming bullies just because you re-home a few chicks.

 

[cletus the rooster]

once they get used to each other you shouldnt have a problem with the big girls picking on them when i put new golden comets(about12wks) in with my oldest ones and 3 guineas they took a few laps around the run and are now one big family and settled but it took about 3 days to get the order down