Wanting to add some new birds this year

[ChickenCanoe]

Quarantining is a strict biosecurity measure used for sick or new birds. Isolation of a bully or broody is something far different and much more lax. Please don't use the two terms interchangeably. It gives new chicken keepers the impression that if they simply house new birds in a different area they are maintaining an adequate quarantine.

My point was that if people are to have chickens, it's not sufficient to build A coop.
They need more than one housing option separated from the other for all the reasons I mentioned and any unforeseen event. Perhaps I should have used the term separate for broody and bully but I sometimes type faster than I think.
It's a good distinction you make though.

 

[song of joy]

For smaller chicks I used a large wire dog crate right in the coop for the smallers. I removed the crate door and put up a piece of wire fencing over the opening and bent up one corner just enough for the smallers to fit thru but the biggers could not. Feed and water inside the crate for the smallers. Make sure the smallers know how to get in and out of the crate opening before exposing them to the olders. this worked out great for me, by the time the crate was too small for the them to roost in there(about 3 weeks), they had pretty much integrated themselves to the olders.

aart - I'm really interested in trying this approach with some chicks I'll be getting this spring. If I move 4-week old chicks into a large wire cage within the coop, approximately at what age should I provide this "come and go" opening to allow them to move back and forth from the wire cage to the rest of the coop? Is 8 weeks of age too early? It would be approx. 6 chicks entering the 10 x 12' coop space of 10 dual-purpose hens.

 

[aart]

Quote: I'd give them a couple weeks of visual exposure before allowing the small door escape hatch routine...... I'd give them 2 escape doors to the safe area so they don't get trapped outside the safe area by big hen blocking the only door.
......Note This is just theory on my part.......the scenario I had success with was chicks that had a 6 week age span(4-10 weeks) that had been in a separated brooder since the youngers were day olds.