question on mixing in this years chicks with last years hens.

[Lelilamom]

Haven't had a chance to come back and check on you all and your chickens - so busy with our 50 chickens! I integrated our 13 babies at 8 weeks using our meaties tractor. I put it right next to the run and they could see eachother all day. They free ranged together for a few hours every day for 2 weeks. Then I put them all in the run for a few hours for 5 days and then into the same coop at night on the 6th day. The young chickens were 10 weeks by that time. No one got pecked, but my 6 girls hoard the food and run the young chicks into the coop and keep the run and food to themselves. This has been going on for 2 weeks now. They are sharing the roosting bar now. I have 2 large feeding stations and 3 water stations out there for them all. My big girls stopped laying. Then one (the big girls are 15 mos old) died suddenly (no wounds). Only three have started laying again.

It's been a rough transition.

How's it going for everyone else?

 

[cortner1195]

I am very sorry that you are having this problem. Sounds like all of your chickens are a bit stressed out right now. I am planning to follow the advice here and wait until September to mix my two groups together. I have a stock rack for the pickup that we are going to place next to the big run so that they share a fence. Then I will house the newbies in my converted stock rack. They will all be there together for several months. Then we will start with the free range time for the first interactions. After a week or so of that we will try the full mix. I had hoped to only mix them in the run during the day on a weekend at first. See how they do, that way I can get the newbies out when it gets dark if I need to. They have access to the underside of the coop, so splitting them up during the day wont be easy.