Should I move my big small chicken to the small baby chicks coop?

[Elrodvo]

Hello. I have 4 big chickens and a small one that are living together in a big coop. The small baby chicks I have are in the other coops. The small chicken that are with the 4 big chickens keeps being bullied, (that's how I would say it) everytime the small chickens gets close to the big ones. Everytime that happens, the small chicken would run from them, it is really scared of them. I am thinking about if I should move the small chicken to the chicks coop. But I'm a bit worried. I'm afraid the small chicken would bite the chicks. The chicks are maybe 6 to 8 weeks old. The small chicken is like 14 weeks or 19 weeks old. I don't want the small chicken to be scared of the big chickens. Should I move it to the small baby chicks coop?

 

[lazy gardener]

What are their breeds? How big is your coop? It's not too early to move them all into one coop, if you have a coop that allows at least 4 s.f./bird, and if that coop has plenty of room for the youngsters to get out of sight/out of reach of the older birds. Hay bales, stacked in a 2 under, one straddling over the top with a tunnel between the 2 lower bales make an awesome play gym/multiple height/escape route/out of sight structure in the coop. You should also have a secure run that provides a minimum of 10 s.f./bird. If your spacing is tighter than that, you are bound to have problems with bloodshed/aggression when integrating new birds. When putting younger birds such as your 6-8 weeks old into a flock of adult sized birds, it's important that they have some place to escape to where the larger birds can't follow.

 

[azygous]

I'll just add a tiny bit to what LG has said, which is terribly fine advice.

Your small chicken is no doubt at the bottom of the pecking order, besides being small, and that is why it's being targeted. If you shift this small chicken over to the chick group, it will then become the bully. Out of the frying pan into the flames, so to speak. You can help this small chicken cope by providing it a haven. I use an old camping table where I place food and water for the bullied ones.

If you plan to put both age groups together, you should not wait to do it since the bigger the chicks get the more of a threat they will pose to the adults, complicating matters. I would introduce them via a safe pen (panic room) in the main run, then open small chick-size portals from this pen into the rest of the run after a few days so the chicks can begin to mingle and find their way into the social structure.

 

[Elrodvo]

 

[Elrodvo]

 

[Elrodvo]

Those are the pictures of my chickens. I think they are Leghorn.

 

[Elrodvo]

Or Amber link. I'm not sure

 

[TheChickenQueen]

Those look like Cornish Rocks to me, they're meat birds.

 

[Elrodvo]

You are right. They are Cornish cross