The Bigs and the Littles *Update* It is working!

[moetrout]

I now have 11 out of 13 chickens roosting on the high roost in the coup at night! I think once they are all roosting together integration will be complete.

 

[organicchef]

OK...I'm encouraged. My "Littles" are 15 weeks old and the Big girls are 1 1/2 years old. The babies have their own run which is next to the big girls' run. They all sleep in the chicken house separated by chicken wire. I have let a couple of the older girls in the small run to see what would happen....it went quite well.
I intend to let them all out this weekend to free range in some of the garden space, but I'm rather nervous!! LOL

 

[moetrout]

Make sure you have treats ready. I think I would put them in the area you want them to free range and immediately throw down some scratch. For me it usually has 2 purposes, it distracts them enough that often they won't realize the other chickens are there and they go on about their business and also it can bring the 2 groups together while the all scramble to get some scratch. You might want to have a small stick or broom to shoo off anyone that starts being mean. I myself have a 3 foot stick that I keep handy out by the coup for chicken herding. It's handy to break up fights too.

 

[MustangGal]

I still have two flocks, most of the time. Tonight for the first time I found one of the Littles roosting with some Bigs. It's progress, I suppose.

 

[Spitman]

Quote:

 

[1MrsMagoo]

This is about what I have happening, except I have three flocks that are different ages: I started with four. All total, I have about 67 chickens right now.
My oldest flock is about 1.5 years old and is comprised of 4 roosters, 23 hens and 3 guinea fowl.

Flock number two is comprised of my six 5 month old Marans and their hatchmates and my twelve 4 month old Ameraucanas: These I put together when they were 3 weeks and a little over 6 weeks old respectively and their are 4 roosters/cockerals in this group.

Flock number 3 are the youngest at 3 months and is comprised of my three Buckeyes and their nine Easter Egger hatchmates. I believe their are another 4 roosters/cockerals in this group.

I built a very large coop with two wire divider walls (so everybody can see one another), which effectively created three coops: Two large ones on the ends and a smaller juvenile area in the middle. A few weeks ago, I opened the interior door between the juveniles and the oldest flock for supervised visitation. I put some special treats in the juvenile coop and the older girls went in to visit: They played nice as long as tasty treats were involved. Each day I left the door open longer until it remained open 24/7. The littles still roost in their area, but I am putting up some additional roosting areas in the main coop over the weekend to encourage them to move out there. I need the juvenile area to bring in some 4 month old hens I am buying locally (turkens, golden comets, barnevelders). All the flocks range together in the pasture they share with the goats.

Other than a couple small bumps it has been a pretty peaceful integration so far. I've had only minor tussles between all the roosters and cockerals. Each flock, within the flock seems content with the social structure and the head rooster of the oldest flock is the boss of everybody. It seems like my original #2 rooster, a bantam Wheaten Ameraucana, has retained his place as the right-hand-man: It is completely funny watching him put those big old Maran boys in their place. He'll be in big trouble if they ever see his size past his big old attitude; he's a little pipsqueak. Once all the boys are a bit bigger, I will decide if anybody has to go to freezer camp or be sold. Some have clemency because of their breed, like my Barnevelder and Splash Ameraucana. However, if anybody gets too aggressive they are out of here.

Something I found amusing happened as soon as I began letting flock#2 (marans) out to free range: my lone surviving Golden Campine hen from flock #1, who was lowest hen in the pecking order, re-homed herself into the Maran/Ameraucana flock and became head hen in that coop. The first night she disappeared I couldn't find her and thought she was gone. In the morning, after I let everyone out, there she was. That night I took a flashlight out to check each roosting area when she did not report to the main coop and there she was cozied up to on of the Maran roosters. She is quite happy now and all her constantly plucked feathers are growing back in nicely....now that is one smart girl.