Today is the Day-but what about tonight?!

[BackAcre]

For the past few months the I have been running 2 coops while I finished one and figured out how best to integrate all my chickens together into it. I put my 3 babies in the new coop first (mainly to get them out of my bathroom where I had been raising them!) and a week after that I introduced 2 new babies in with them. Everyone in there gets along fine, despite the fact that they generally hang out with the groups they started in. I also have 2 adult hens that I have waited until today to integrate. I started by letting them free range near the run with the younger birds in it and they grew quite accustomed to seeing them and eating scratch off the ground right beside them with a fence separating. Today I integrated them in with the youngsters. I put all sorts of obstacles and hiding places in the run, and spread feed and scratch everywhere and let the older chickens walk themselves into the open run door as they were eating. Everything has gone about as I expected - the matriarch is the boss, and only interrupts when the baby rooster and the other adult hen start flapping and pecking she breaks it up. The rest are just trying to stay out of the way. It appears like a pretty easily established pecking order, and after awhile they all went off to do their own thing. I am just wondering about tonight - should I let everyone go into the new henhouse and roost together, or should I put the adult hens back in the old hen house and do more of these little play dates in the run? I know not much happens at night when it gets dark and they roost, but I Don't want to put anyone at risk of getting pecked to death when I am not around. If it is alright to set everyone up to roost together, does it seem safe to leave them unattended tomorrow morning when I go to work? Or am I overthinking this, lol?

 

[Mrs. K]

Based on the description of the meeting, eating together and the hideouts set up, I would go for it. Generally speaking the older birds will go to bed first, get the choice roost spots, the 'teenagers' will want to hang out till later, then sneak in. Some will roost near, but not next to the older ones, many will try and roost in the nests - which makes a mess, but I will let it go for a couple of days.

I find that drawing out the process, just does that, draws it out. It is really better to do it and get it over with. If they were going to kill one, mine have done it right away, so I would expect this to work. There will be some thumps, but should not be life threatening.

However, that being said, I have not seen your set up, and each bird has not read the "usual behavior book" so I would go down tomorrow and see how it goes before leaving for work.

Mrs K

 

[BackAcre]

Thanks for your advice! I am feeling pretty ok with them. Their pecking order seems pretty apparent already, so as they keep going like this, I am comfortable. I have three levels of roosts in the hen house plus a super high bar by the ceiling for any daredevils, so lots to chose from. I will wait til it gets quit dim before I shut them in to keep the moving around to a minimum, and get up early to let them back out to avoid any daylight skirmishes. Thanks for taking time to give encouragement!

 

[aart]

Sounds like you've done a good job acclimating/integrating.
How old are the 'babies'?

should I let everyone go into the new henhouse and roost together, or should I put the adult hens back in the old hen house

This made me chuckle....the old hens are going to want to go back to their coop. I'm assuming they won't have access to it as they are confined in a new run?
Well, your post was yesterday so am curious what happened...
....if the old girls went into the new coop and how they all behaved during the RoostTimeRumble, must have been quite interesting to observe.

 

[BackAcre]

Thanks for checking in! So far it seems like the old ladies have taken over the run area, the teen group is confused and just hangs out in the roosting area mostly, and the 'babies' (8ish weeks I am told- not so young, but the new kids) have a newfound confidence now that the hens are there putting the teen group in their place! They all seem to be sticking to their groups but will walk freely around the run and no more outright skirmishes. They did roost as you predicted - the old hens took the top roost and the rest of them went one roost down. I had to lift my oldest hen up and down off of her roost today - she has never lived anywhere but the old coop for the past 2 years, so this is blowing her mind, haha. One thing I will have to figure out, and would love advice on - teaching the adult hens to use the new nest boxes. One hen laid her egg outside in the run Today, the other hasn't laid at all (no surprise I guess, with the new accomodations). I manually out her in the nest box, but she just popped back out. Will they figure it out eventually? I took the straw from their old nest boxes and put it in the new ones as a hint. I am not keen on putting eggs in though, in case they or the babies peck them and learn bad habits.

 

[aart]

Put fake eggs in, and make sure they are easily accessible, then give them a few days.
Big changes for the old girls, glad they roosted in the new coop for you.

 

[BackAcre]

Thank you so much for your advice. The whole process really went just about as well as I could have asked for. I don't mind admitting that I was likely the most stressed one of us all, haha.

 

[ShanasCastle]

For the past few months the I have been running 2 coops while I finished one and figured out how best to integrate all my chickens together into it. I put my 3 babies in the new coop first (mainly to get them out of my bathroom where I had been raising them!) and a week after that I introduced 2 new babies in with them. Everyone in there gets along fine, despite the fact that they generally hang out with the groups they started in. I also have 2 adult hens that I have waited until today to integrate. I started by letting them free range near the run with the younger birds in it and they grew quite accustomed to seeing them and eating scratch off the ground right beside them with a fence separating. Today I integrated them in with the youngsters. I put all sorts of obstacles and hiding places in the run, and spread feed and scratch everywhere and let the older chickens walk themselves into the open run door as they were eating. Everything has gone about as I expected - the matriarch is the boss, and only interrupts when the baby rooster and the other adult hen start flapping and pecking she breaks it up. The rest are just trying to stay out of the way. It appears like a pretty easily established pecking order, and after awhile they all went off to do their own thing. I am just wondering about tonight - should I let everyone go into the new henhouse and roost together, or should I put the adult hens back in the old hen house and do more of these little play dates in the run? I know not much happens at night when it gets dark and they roost, but I Don't want to put anyone at risk of getting pecked to death when I am not around. If it is alright to set everyone up to roost together, does it seem safe to leave them unattended tomorrow morning when I go to work? Or am I overthinking this, lol?

I believe once they establish their pecking order it's best to just leave them or else it will just have to be repeated. Sounds like you've done all the right things too! Well done

 

[BackAcre]

Yep, they are all settling in just wonderfully!