when can i let my 4 week old go in the coop with the others

[frizzleman74]

i have 11 4 week old chicks all different breed, leghorns silkies, BO, EE, etc... i have a RIR and a bantam frizzle in my coop outside right now. When will they be able to move in with them without light and so they wont get picked on my the 2 adult hens? Any strategies i should use to ensure they wont get hurt? thanks

 

[frizzleman74]

anyone?...

 

[swampcat]

I don't know where you are from, but I know here in CT it is too cold for non-feathered-outers to be without heat. If you do a search for integrating you'll find a bunch of threads on the topic with great methods of getting them all together when the time is right.

 

[frizzleman74]

oh thanks so much, i live in CT too!

 

[Chocobroc]

I have three 10 week olds that I've moved outside next to my adult run so they can see each other (I live in NC so it is plenty warm). Anyway, I attempted to introduce them after being next to each other a couple days, and the first thing my alpha hen did was run up to one and peck her in the head!! Of course, I immediately separated them again and I will attempted this again in a week or so. From what I read, it is the size difference in the birds that is going to be the biggest problem. The adults tend to pick on them when they are smaller.

I'm thinking my 10 weekers are going to need a few more weeks of separation. Hopefully, being able to see each other through the wire they will get use to each other while they get bigger.

So, besides that it is too cold where you are right now, I think your little ones are too small to integrate with the adults.


Good luck!

 

[Hopeful Peacock]

I was just reading about introducing littleuns to biguns and I found a post several years old. One person (I forgot who posted it - sorry) kept her little ones in a dig crate in the coop for several weeks. She's let them out together with her close supervision, and she'd gently discipline any big ones that were aggressive (moving them aside, etc.) After several weeks of this, she took away the crate at night, and added 3 big colorful toddler toys to the coop. The chickens were distracted by the toys, and the little ones could hide behind them and it went off without a hitch. i thought the ditracting toys was a stroke of genius. So. . . when it warms up, may be something to try. I am waiting for it to warm up too!

 

[bburn]

The size is the biggest issue.

But once they are big enough to intergrate it still is not easy. There will be uglyness and it is not easy to watch. It took two months for my MOB to accept two hens that were their size. Now when I peek in the coop at night once they are roosted one of the two new hens is right up there by the rooster. But the head roo has really given her a hard time.

But 4 weeks old is what my babies in the garage are and there is no way I would turn them loose with the MOB. They are going out into a tractor in two more weeks. In the meantime I have 37 chicks in the brooder in the bathroom that is rapidly getting too small. Going to have to make a devider in the big brooder in the garage that will last a couple of weeks and get those babies out of the bathroom.

By the time the teeenagers are getting too big for the tractor my DH should have some kind of new coop and run built for the new MOB.

Intergration is never easy and that is the reason I have two coops and runs, one corner mini coop and run and a tractor.....and am wanting another coop and run..or maybe a duplex.