When and how to introduce new chicks to my flock?

[IzzyBizzy24]

good morning!
I have 4 mature hens that i acquired from a family friend last year and i fell in love with having chickens! This spring my family and I decided to add to our flock! We now have 10 chicks plus our 4 hens!
We live in Maine and our days are finally warming up! My chicks are 8 almost 9 weeks old and we just started letting them out of their brooder and outside.
When is it time to introduce them to my mature hens?

 

[DobieLover]

View attachment 1751513 View attachment 1751514 View attachment 1751491 good morning!
I have 4 mature hens that i acquired from a family friend last year and i fell in love with having chickens! This spring my family and I decided to add to our flock! We now have 10 chicks plus our 4 hens!
We live in Maine and our days are finally warming up! My chicks are 8 almost 9 weeks old and we just started letting them out of their brooder and outside.
When is it time to introduce them to my mature hens?

You should start now with a 'look no touch' set up. You actually could have started that when they were 6 weeks old. You will want to have them in that set up for several weeks while the littles get to know the bigs and vice versa.
How large is your coop and run? You will need lots of space, hiding places and food and water sources for a successful integration.
You may want to seriously consider covering that chicken wire with 1/2" hardware cloth. Pretty much any mammalian predator can rip right through chicken wire without much effort.

 

[IzzyBizzy24]

Yes thank you for the information. I will start letting them get to know each other now. We have started building a much larger coop with stronger wire that picture was our temporary coop we used. Our hens free range as we live in the country and have a large piece of land. We do have the new coop fenced in which is about a 1/2 acre spot.

 

[aart]

Here's some tips on.....
Integration Basics:
It's all about territory and resources(space/food/water).
Existing birds will almost always attack new ones to defend their resources.
Understanding chicken behaviors is essential to integrating new birds into your flock.

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact.

In adjacent runs, spread scratch grains along the dividing mesh, best if mesh is just big enough for birds to stick their head thru, so they get used to eating together.

The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no copious blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down and beaten unmercilessly, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide 'out of line of sight'(but not a dead end trap) and/or up and away from any bully birds. Roosts, pallets or boards leaned up against walls or up on concrete blocks, old chairs tables, branches, logs, stumps out in the run can really help. Lots of diversion and places to 'hide' instead of bare wide open run.



I notice your nests are rather high on your first coop.....so here's some tips on the height of things. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/coop-stack-up-how-high-stuff-works-well.73427/

Oh, and....Welcome to BYC! @IzzyBizzy24
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