When can I introduce new chicks to older chicks?

[muenkel]

well i hope things go well, i just placed my 6wks old silver laced babies out in the lg pen, i enclosed them in a babies play yard with a scrap of board on top to shelter from any rain, did lock the hens out of the yard for their safety, will bring them in again at night, i must say I've never done this before, this is my first( second) batch of chicks

I figure ill do this a few times when I'm home, and then have my hubby build a "babies coop" within the coop for nite time

 

[julie42a]

I have 3 pullets that I purchased on 4/26. I'm a little unsure as to their ages as the guy at the farm store only knew that they were "no more than 4 weeks" when I bought them. Two were labled "red rangers" and are really big. The third is a "California white" and is rather petite. All three are fully feathered and are beginning to develop pinkish combs and small wattles. They've been out in the coop since Memorial Day because that's when it was finished. On 5/31 I purchased two SLW that were around a week old according to farm store. Yesterday I moved the rabbit cage I use for a brooder out to the coop, since its really warm out. The big chickens were interested, but not very. They were more interested in the cage than the babies inside it. I'm wondering how long I should wait before letting little ones out? Right now all is fairly peaceful.

 

[blucoondawg]

My batch of chicks is almost 11 weeks old right now, I put them out in the coop when they were probably 7 weeks old, it went ok for about 2 days then the 3rd day for whatever reason they got attacked by one or more of the large chickens, I came home from work to find 1 small rooster pecked almost to death(I had to finish him off) and a EE hen with a badly damaged wing, she was nursed back to health. The next day I built a wall of a 2x4 frame and chicken wire to divide off a section of coop into the chick's area, but they are still inside with the large chickens, all that separates them is the chicken wire. I have left them in this setup until today, like I said they are 11 weeks old now.

This afternoon I let the flock out to range in my fenced yard and opened up the chick's pen in the coop, at 11 weeks the little roosters are about the same size as my EE hens and smaller NH reds, obviously my hen chicks are somewhat smaller with the exception of my BRxBrahma cross she is a lunker, lol. The chicks are still afraid to come outside but explored the other half of the coop. My rooster and a few of the hens have popped in to see them without incident other than 1 White Roc whom insists on going in and chasing them and pecking them on the back and yanking out feathers. If all the others remain ok with the chicks I will have a white roc in the stew pot tomorrow!

I would have thought 4 or 5 weeks with the hens living side by side with the chicks that they would be used to each other but there is still going to be fights and pecking order going on. At least now the chicks are big enough to run away, when they were smaller they would huddle in the corner and try to hide, then they would get hurt because the big chickens would continue to attack.

 

[julie42a]

Well then I will wait until these little ones are bigger, because my red chickens are huge, they could definitely do some damage to the little ones right now if they decided to.

 

[Zvacman]

I put the RIR's in with the bigger ones today, they are 5-1/2-6 weeks old. The big ones left them alone for the most part. The only problem was the little ones didn't go in at dusk, I had to put them in.

 

[blucoondawg]

Keep a close eye on them for a few days. Mine were fine the first 2 days then for whatever reason they started attaching the chicks. Mine are almost 11 weeks now and I still have to keep an eye of a couple of the bigger hens

 

[julie42a]

I let the little ones out in the coop while the big girls were in the yard and one of the big girls snuck back in, walked right up to a chick and pecked it on the head. Clearly we aren't ready for play time yet. Once the babies were back in their cage the big girls lost all interest them though, like they weren't even there despite the fact that those little ones are LOUD! So weird.

 

[schmwade]

This is what I did to introduce my chicks to the older birds. First a little background. I have 4 hens that we incubated and hatched out of eggs a little over a year ago. We hatched from them 8 baby chicks. They are now 7 weeks old. We built a coop within the older chickens coop about a week ago (the older chickens are completely free range on 15 acres.) I wanted the older chickens to see and get used to the babies without tormenting them too much. It was a sight to see when the older chickens realized there were babies inside their coop (cackling for about an hour straight.) We just started letting the chicks out to go free range with supervision I might add for a few hours a day. The older chickens peck at them a little bit and chase them around but nothing too drastic. I am hoping that using this method of a few hours a day the adult chicks will finally establish the pecking order and leave them alone. no blood or anything crazy yet so i think this looks promising! I have one baby rooster that gets a little defiant of the pecking order so it will be interesting to see how it all plays out. I am pretty new to this so i am not sure if I am doing this right but it seems promising just might need a bigger coop! hope this helps!

 

[Zvacman]

The little ones were with the bigger ones all day yesterday. At dusk when the bigger ones went in to roost the little ones wouldn't go in, I had to put them in one by one. Today I was out working around them all day and I'm sorry to report that one of them got killed when I wasn't near by. Tonight at dusk it was the same story, the little ones wouldn't go in so I set the brooder up in the run. I don't think they were ready yet.

 

[blucoondawg]

The little ones were with the bigger ones all day yesterday. At dusk when the bigger ones went in to roost the little ones wouldn't go in, I had to put them in one by one. Today I was out working around them all day and I'm sorry to report that one of them got killed when I wasn't near by. Tonight at dusk it was the same story, the little ones wouldn't go in so I set the brooder up in the run. I don't think they were readying yet.

thatstinks.Pretty much the same results I had at that age I think the chicks don't have the survival instinct to run away or fly up and roost. Mine would cower in the corner at that age and allow the big chickens to continue pecking them. I say the only certain way to do it is wait until they are almost full grown. Mine are slightly smaller now and still get bullied but I don't think they would be easily killed