When can I introduce new chicks to older chicks?

[julie42a]

Oh no! Hope everything is all right!
I've been trying to have mine gradually spend a little time together each day, and it alwsys ends in pecking and me seperating everybody. So tonight I tried sneaking the little ones onto the roost with the big girls (its dropping down to 50 overnight so I thought they'd be warmer) and I guess I wasn't sneaky enough, because just as I thought the peepers were all squared away first one and then the other of my red chickens turned around and pecked them really hard. So another chicken integration fail. I really don't get it, they can see and hear each other all the time, but the minute I let the babies out of their cage everyone loses their mind. Sigh.

 

[blucoondawg]

Oh no! Hope everything is all right!
I've been trying to have mine gradually spend a little time together each day, and it alwsys ends in pecking and me seperating everybody. So tonight I tried sneaking the little ones onto the roost with the big girls (its dropping down to 50 overnight so I thought they'd be warmer) and I guess I wasn't sneaky enough, because just as I thought the peepers were all squared away first one and then the other of my red chickens turned around and pecked them really hard. So another chicken integration fail. I really don't get it, they can see and hear each other all the time, but the minute I let the babies out of their cage everyone loses their mind. Sigh.

How old are they

 

[julie42a]

Ive had the big girls 11 weeks, but I believe they're closer to 13 or 14 weeks. The guy at the store said "no older than 4 weeks" when I got them. The babies are 5 or 6 weeks old. The big girls are hybrids and two of them are pretty big. The babies are SLW and not growing as fast as the hybrids did. They have a lot of feathers, but not the bulk of the "big reds".

 

[vcallaway]

I'm new here and this is what I was wondering about as well.

I have a rooster and three hens that are just under a year old. I have 4 chicks that are about 12 weeks old. The adults are loose in the yard during the day, we are on 15 acres. The chicks are in a pen we move around the yard.

The rooster is very good about herding the hens in to the coop at dusk. I want to make sure the new chicks get in that same habit. Should I start by just putting them in there by themselves for a few hours a day? Or should I start letting them free range with the adults first?

 

[blucoondawg]

I'm new here and this is what I was wondering about as well.

I have a rooster and three hens that are just under a year old. I have 4 chicks that are about 12 weeks old. The adults are loose in the yard during the day, we are on 15 acres. The chicks are in a pen we move around the yard.

The rooster is very good about herding the hens in to the coop at dusk. I want to make sure the new chicks get in that same habit. Should I start by just putting them in there by themselves for a few hours a day? Or should I start letting them free range with the adults first?

I would say the chicks will need to get used to calling the coop home before you allow them to free range, if they have not ever lived in the coop they will not know that it is where they need to go at night. My chicks are 12 weeks now and this is the first week I have allowed them to live in the coop freely, I tried at 6 or 7 weeks and the big chickens were constantly attacking the chicks, so I built a wire wall in the coop and divided off half for the chicks, in the 5 weeks or so they lived that way they got to recognize the coop as "home" and also the big chickens got used to them being there. Last weekend I removed the wire dividers and put them all together, the only problem I had was the chicks not wanting to go outside, I had to toss them all out of the coop the first time and now they go out on their own.

Your chickens are likely familiar with the chicks if they are allowed to free range in the area of the chick pen however if you put the chicks in the coop with the chickens and the chicks are not protected by a cage or divider you may end up with the large chickens going on the attack because it will seriously disrupt the pecking order as well as the issue that the new chicks will be seen as intruders into their coop. There will be pecking order conflict no matter what but I have found it is worse if the chicks are just thrown in the coop all at once and left on their own without the protection of a fence or mother hen.

 

[julie42a]

Well today I did a major clean out of the coop-pulled every thing out, hosed the floor, put in new bedding. I put the big chickens out in the yard to free range and the babies in the run while I was working. The big girls checked on me a few times and were a bit put out by the situation but when they finally came in they decided it was bed time and went up to their roosts. Then I opened the run door and the babies went in their house and ate and then came back out and flew up to the roost below the big girls. No one made a fuss. I've checked on them three or four times tonight and everyone is still fine so I'm going to quit waking them up and cross my fingers that all is well when I go out there in the morning. The babies cage is open, so hopefully they're smart enough to go in there if the big girls get after them.

 

[vcallaway]

Last couple of days I let the babies out of the pen during the day. There was a little bit of who's the boss at first but nothing I had to intervene with.

Last night I decided to go ahead and put them in the coop. The four little ones hopped in one of the nesting boxes together and spent the night there. At least they were still there when I opened the door this morning.

I don't have that many chickens. I have three hens with the oldest being about a year and a half. The 4 babies are 3 months old.