Transitioning ideas

[chickenthyme]

I have been caring for my granddaughters 5 Rhode Island reds for 18 months now while she was unable to have them. She moved earlier and was going to take these chickens back but now in the meantime, she cannot. While I was waiting for her to be able to take these, I decided I was going to go ahead and get peeps and start a new flock from babies.
I've been stressing trying to decide what to do now (whether to find a home for the older 5 or what) but decided my coop and run are probably adequate for 11 hens and maybe I should just keep them all.
BUT the Littles are in a puppy playpen in our basement AND they are now around 7 weeks old and ready to be OUT! (plus all the dust and commotion they are creating) I have a big dog kennel I bought last year as sort of a chicken tractor for the big girls to put them on fresh grass occasionally so last week I put half of the littles out in it to let them be outside for a bit.
The kennel is too big to put in coop so wondering what I could use a temporary coop for them at night?? Our coop is like a big closet inside our garage (probably 10 foot x 8 foot with 3 laying boxes).
Any thoughts?? I'd sure appreciate it. I still feel new to a lot of this plus it my first time with peeps PLUS spent quite a bit of money just to settle the original 5 where they are now so trying to keep it at a reasonable cost no matter what I do.

 

[azygous]

It's possible to integrate seven-week olds with adult chickens and to do it cheaply. However, at the age of your chicks, it needs to be done gradually or there could be some unpleasant conflict.

Chicks are able to observe and learn about the temperament of adult chickens. This schools them with the knowledge of which hens will be accepting and which ones to avoid at all costs.

You need to begin by rigging a temporary safe pen in the run. Over a four or five day period, take the chicks out to spend the day in this safe pen so they can observe the five adults.

At the end of five days open 5" x 7" portals into the safe pen, careful to tape up sharp edges. This will permit the chicks to mingle safety with the adults and to have the safe refuge to run back to if things get a bit rough.

Give them a couple days of this and then install the chicks in the coop after the hens have finished laying. Do this as early in the day as you can, and close the coop up so the chicks can get used to it being "home". I place the chicks on the perch at roosting time as far away from where the adults normally roost, then let the adults in at the last minute before dark to reduce the chances of conflict. But stand by to referee. I find a fly swatter handy to swat the butt of any misbehaving hen that has it in mind to bully the youngsters. One swat and you usually only need to brandish the swatter the next time.

Do this for two or three nights. After that, you can stand by to encourage the chicks to go into the coop by placing a dim night light in there so they are attracted to go in by the light.

Many of us brood chicks in proximity to the adults from day one, and they are ready to mingle with the adults by age two weeks. They move into the coop at five weeks, and are roosting in just a few days as well as going into the coop on their own. With older chicks not used to adult chickens, the process takes longer.

Hope this helps.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You have a lot of different things working. Do you have a run or is that coop all there is? The coop itself is big enough if you have a run attached and available. If it is only the coop it could be tight, especially during integration. Do you have photos of the coop itself and the run also if you have one?

Without knowing coop details my suggestion is to build a pen inside the coop to house the chicks. It sounds like you only have six chicks. Since you are not worried about predator protection in the coop, you can use chicken wire or whatever you have to keep costs down. This pen can go all the way to the coop ceiling or you can build it shorter, whichever is easier. You will need access for food and water, probably cleaning. You are trying to build something to keep the chicks from flying out and the adults from flying in. It does not have to be fancy. For six chicks I'd want it a bare minimum 12 square feet, bigger is better.

Azygous gave a pretty detailed description of how she does it. It should work. I'm more laid back that that but one basic is are to let them live in sight but out of touch for a while to get used to each other. I don't use her safe haven/panic room approach but it can be a great method, especially if room is a little tight. I probably have 20 to 30 times as much room per chicken outside as most people on this forum so I can use other methods. My climate is such that my adults spend all day every day outside and the chicks have plenty of room to avoid the adults. This is part of why I was asking about your run room.

How your roosts are set up can be important too. My chicks usually don't sleep on the main roosts with the adults until they are mature enough to force their way into the pecking order, about the time the pullets start laying. The adults can be fairly brutal to immature birds when settling onto the roosts at night so the young often look for a safer place to sleep. Sometimes this turned out of be my nests. I'm always integrating younger birds and this became enough of a problem that I added a juvenile roost, lower than the main roosts, separated a few feet horizontally, and higher than the nests. This has worked out really well for me. You may not need to build a juvenile roost, you can wait and see. But this is a big advantage of having a coop bigger than the absolute minimum, in a coop your size you can build one if you need to. I love the flexibility that gives you.

 

[Stacyoung13]

I made a playpen out of old leftover screen for the meet no touch,

then I put a piece of fencing in the corner of my run, with chicken wire over top, so that the babies can go in, but the adults can’t

The babies run around in the run, and go through the fence when scared.

 

[chickenthyme]

Sorry I am SO behind in responding back to this thread!! THANK YOU so much for responding to my dilemma! As of recent I have moved the puppy pen with the chicks out into the garage close to the coop with the big girls. For about a week I have been putting the chicks into a small run right up against the big girls run. I am still 'chicken' about putting them in with the big girls so other than being a pain taking the little girls one at the time and putting them into the little run and then one at a time putting them back into the puppy pen, that's all the farther I've gotten. It's relieved the mess in our basement but I know it can't continue much longer this way. Including a picture of my coop. It's a little distorted on back wall with the window as I was doing a panoramic view.