Trying to UNIFY the troops ? sugestions??

[nanawendy]

The problem the broody mama's chicks are kind of bullies.

The hatchery chicks are "sheltered" and know nothing about the outdoors. All chick in this grouping are 6+ wks old and almost totally feathered.

What I did was put the mama and her 4 chicks to free range in our little back yard... then put the 4 hatchery chicks in the broody coop to hang out in the great out doors. I want to unite them soon 'cause broody mama is lookin' to go back with the big girls soon.
What can I do to help smooth the transition or should I just yank the band-aid off

 

[nanawendy]

Any Thoughts

 

[me2pl]

well, last year, we bought 3 Americanas and a silver seabright add to our flock, but integration was a female dog. we ended up making an extra cage-coop with a kennel for minimal protection. we would put them in their chick box every night and release them to mingle while watched for a few minutes each day the main part was the placement of the chicks' area: right outside the normal coop. i would NOT just combine the two groups.

 

[nanawendy]

Yeah... When I switched it up today to let the hatchery chicks get some air, they seemed frightened of the environment... without any buddy to assault them. It didn't seem this hard last year. But then their were only 2 broody chicks and 6 hatchery chicks the same age.

 

[nanawendy]

BTW thanks for your input and

 

[MissJenny]

Integration is just hard. Some people slip them into the coop together at night -- they wake up with new friends. This did not work for me. Some people house them side by side, where they can see each other but not touch. This did not work for me either. Some people do a combination of these along with letting them mingle, supervised a little at a time.

My guess is that the less they are "managed" the better they do... and the younger they are integrated the better off they are.

Suppose Mama goes back to the big girls, so she is not part of the equation. She is going to be somewhat to quite a lot aggressive to the hatchery chicks. This will give her chicks a sense of entitlement against the hatchery chicks.

This question comes up quite a lot -- Can you let us know what you did and how well it worked?

Jenny

 

[nanawendy]

Your right. Keeping mama out of the equation would be a sensible start. I will keep you posted