When can mama and her babies be introduced to the flock?

[jeremyhodges]

I have a small backyard flock of 5 hens in San Diego. Because they're all getting up there in age I decided to get 4 chicks from Meyer Hatchery. The chicks arrived last Tuesday. Two days before my chicks got here I had a Blue Laced Red Wyandotte go broody. On Wednesday (the day after the chicks arrived and three days after she went broody) I decided to take a chance and put my chicks underneath the broody hen. Most of the things I read said to only do this is your hen has been broody for weeks so I stood by and monitored her for a long time. It worked like a charm! I'm so excited to not have to deal with heat lamps, feather dust, etc. Mom and her adoptive chicks have been together for 4 days now and she's doing great. I walled off half of the coop with hardware cloth, so mom and chicks are currently separated from the rest of my flock. At what age can I open things up to give mom and chicks access to the run? Yesterday I did let all of my chickens including mom and chicks out into the yard and the older hens completely ignored mom and chicks. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I usually give the chicks a week or two to get stronger, and to learn how to follow momma. Than I start supervised mingling. It will go easy most times, occasionally there will be drama. As the chicks are a bit older they can avoid most attacks and know to get back to mom. Sometimes I continue to separate out mom at night and sometimes I don't based on how comfortable I feel about how it's going.