When can babies mix with adults?

[CJLR]

We jut introduced our 4 8 week olds
And the hens did not seem to care

 

[WhoDatChick]

You can also feed an “all flock”... that’s what I feed mine.. with oyster shells on the side..

 

[Cryss]

I have 10 seven week old buff orpingtons that are outside now in the big coop but still inside a large wire dog crate. I also have 4 grown hens, (orpingtons also). The old girls really don't show much interest in the babies except to check on the food that falls out of their cage. I can't remember how old they should be to mix. The babies are getting to big to be left in the crate, should I experiment? I don't want anyone to get hurt but the hens are old ladies and there are only 4 of them to the 10 pullets. If they were any other type of chicken I would be really worried but orpingtons are so mild mannered usually. Maybe I will put wire up and make a bigger space in one corner for the babies. What do y'all think?

How long have the babies been in the cage and inside with the adults? Normally I crate for about 2 weeks, usually more, of newbies being seen through a dog cage. I just did this with 4 newbies joining 4 adults. Because one newbie was much smaller I kept them in for about 3 weeks to allow her to get a bit bigger. Releasing them went so smooth, only the normal pecking order activity. Not even the smallest one was bullied.
All that being said...if your newbies have only been caged in view of the adults for a day or so it depends on the size of the cage. I kinda doubt it is big enough for ten pullets. It would really need to be huge! My cage is large, maybe 2X3, and my 4 newbies were crowded. You may want to make that bigger space.

 

[csorenson1]

I just let my 7 week old Buff Orpington chicks and a young Silky mix with the older hens. The Red Sex Link Hens, who have been so friendly with us, are chasing the youngsters and pecking aggressively. My Plymouth Rock was very gentle with them. I have yet to see the Australorps interact. I have a space fenced off for the chicks in the hen house and places to hide. So I am still doing supervised time together and then I keep them separate when I am not in or near the coop. We will see if the Red Sex Links settle down.

 

[Leigti]

It was my plan to hold off integrating my chicklets with the Big Girls until the younger ones reached 16 weeks due to their different dietary requirements. But ... well, as the poet said, "the best-laid plans of mice and men," and all that ... so we opened the gate between them at 12 weeks and they are gradually integrating. Not fully, because the Big Girls go free-ranging in the afternoon, practically abandoning their small yard and coop, while the chicklets happily explore those two areas but have not yet discovered the hidden gate to the Great Outdoors! They mingle a little and there are no problems, as they have shared a fence for two months now and are well acquainted.

You can solve the different food requirement problem by feeding all your chickens grower feed. And having a oyster shell available on the side.

 

[Cryss]

You can solve the different food requirement problem by feeding all your chickens grower feed. And having a oyster shell available on the side.

Exactly. I think this is what most backyard chicken owners do. I think layer feed is mostly used by people who are involved in high egg production for egg sale, no roosters, no chicks to hatch and raise, cull hens over 3 years old. There are farms that raise eggs to hatch and sell those to farms that raise chicks to pol that sell those to farms that keep thousands of hens to lay eggs for supermarkets that every year cull hens over 3 years old. Each farm needs a different feed so thats the easier way. Backyard keepers often have mixed age flocks. We don't need to use specialized feed. Just do like @Leigti said. Grower feed and shell on the side.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Thank you, @Leigti that is a great idea! I will start doing this as soon as we finish feeding the current bags of feed.

 

[kmsfullmer]

I've had my two, 10 week, "little girls" in a separate pen out in the chicken yard, for 3 weeks now, practicing the "look but don't touch". It's gone great and this week I feel like they are similar in size, that I let them out for a few hours with five "big girls" each day. I also started them in the coop (in a large dog crate) at night because it's finally warm enough here in Northern Utah. It has gone better than I could have hoped despite my fears. This method has zero cons for me. Totally going to try it again with my four, 4 week old "baby girls" (chicken math )

I completely forgot about the feed, so I'm very glad I read this thread!

 

[jugchoke]

Chicks are much faster than the adults, so at worst there will be a few pecks and the chicks will mostly stay “out of range”. Then integration can proceed at a leasurly pace.

 

[Raven72ab]

I setup a small coup integrated into my main coup for my 10 week old chickadees and quackers. After 2 weeks of some what supervised free range time with the 1 year olds I just let everyone stay together after the younger chicks started sleeping in the coup with the big girls.