The 6th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!

[NikkiCole5]

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I just finished another hatch on Wednesday...so stinkin adorable!

Aww my babies like your last picture are about a week or so old now

Lil beasts didn't wanna stay still lol

 

[SandraBH]

Aww my babies like your last picture are about a week or so old now

Lil beasts didn't wanna stay still lol

Awww...I love their feathers. What breed are they? Mine are barnyard mix...I have 24 altogether from this hatch. 2 left from the Easter hatch. Well really 8 but 6 thank goodness are spoken for. Now to decide which of my new hatch I will keep and which ones to find new homes for.
Filling backyards with chickens...one hatch at a time.

 

[Mama Bay]

So the HAL chicks will be 8 weeks next weekend!!! I am planning to put them in with the big ones next weekend. I have 8 adults (7 hens, 1 roo) and I have 21 chicks to put in. Any suggestions for best integration method?

 

[Mama Bay]

Also, and suggestions for how to feed the chicks seperately from the older ones? I currently have them on medicated start & grow...

 

[chicken pickin]

Also, and suggestions for how to feed the chicks seperately from the older ones? I currently have them on medicated start & grow...

This is just my personal thought, but I feel 7 or 8 weeks old is too young to integrate with adults. I feel that is asking for injury or even death if the adults don't take a liking to the little ones. Is there a way to separate them with a fence or do you have another way of housing them next to the adults until they grow a little bigger and the adults have time to get adjusted by seeing them daily with out touching them? Or maybe construct and area that only the small ones can get under or around s they have a safe area to hide if they feel threatened.

 

[campingshaws]

One of my Easter babies. I thought it was a pullet, until this morning. Are those actual tail sickles?!

 

[Mama Bay]

This is just my personal thought, but I feel 7 or 8 weeks old is too young to integrate with adults. I feel that is asking for injury or even death if the adults don't take a liking to the little ones. Is there a way to separate them with a fence or do you have another way of housing them next to the adults until they grow a little bigger and the adults have time to get adjusted by seeing them daily with out touching them? Or maybe construct and area that only the small ones can get under or around s they have a safe area to hide if they feel threatened.  

I was just going by an article I read about age. It said that at 8 weeks they're not too big not too small. What age do you suggest? The chicks are currently housed in our "Chick Tank" outside of the big coop and spend sometime in extra large dog cages to get some scratch fun in the dirt time. The big chickens hang around and check them out quite often but they can't actually get to them.... My big chickens free range so I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with that either

I'll have to check to see what kind of supplies I have me maybe I can put something up temporarily....

 

[ronott1]

I was just going by an article I read about age. It said that at 8 weeks they're not too big not too small. What age do you suggest? The chicks are currently housed in our "Chick Tank" outside of the big coop and spend sometime in extra large dog cages to get some scratch fun in the dirt time. The big chickens hang around and check them out quite often but they can't actually get to them.... My big chickens free range so I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with that either

I'll have to check to see what kind of supplies I have me maybe I can put something up temporarily....

They should be 3\4 the size of the big ones. It may work sometimes but a lot a times the big ones will think the little ones are dinner and not a flock mate.

I have had this happen before and it is not pretty.

 

[Mama Bay]

They're getting pretty crowded in there...

 

[Mama Bay]

They should be 3\4 the size of the big ones. It may work sometimes but a lot a times the big ones will think the little ones are dinner and not a flock mate.

I have had this happen before and it is not pretty.

So less about age and more about size? I have such a wide range of sizes.... Do you suggest a staggered integration?