When can they go in with the big chickens?

[Hillschicks]

Seperated they will absolutely do very well... But it could be a different story when they are in the same coop trying to share the same roost... Its good to let them be able to see but not touch, but even the nicest chickens still have a pecking order... Adding new chickens is like hitting the reset button on the pecking order and they will re-establish it one way or the other... If you want to go by "temperment" you can, but even a nice lap chicken will make its place known to the new comers when they officially move in... If you dont have to rush it for space reasons, i would wait... When we went out the next morning and found our leghorn with skull showing we felt terrible... Believe me, its not a feeling you want.. We learned our lesson the hard way unfortunately... But absolutely letting them see each other without being able to touch each other is the way to go

 

[aggiemae]

I keep the new hens protected but visible for a few weeks. Then around the time when a few of the pullets start laying I sneak the new hens into the roost during the night when they are all sleeping. I make sure to open the coop before they wake up so there is an escape route if things go bad and stuck around the house for a few days just in case there was blood shed.

This will the 2nd time we have done this but it went very well last spring.

 

[CaliTX]

Thanks for all the feedback!

Hahah, I guess 40's seems really cold to me since its Texas, so I thought they'd be cold. They are almost completely feathered now though (a couple of them still have some silly fluff on their heads, and most of them are a little bit bare under their wings). I will stop with the silly heat lamp business.

I'm off to see what I can do in terms of fencing them their own little area within the existing chicken run so the adults can get used to them through the wire. Thank y'all again!

 

[aggiemae]

For a temporary fence inside an existing run you can used 1x2 lumber and the plastic "chicken wire" It's cheaper and since it cuts with scissors it's much easier to work with.

I use it all the time, along with flexible plastic poles, to build hoop style covers to keep my hens out of planting beds.

 

[CaliTX]

Aggiemae, that's a great idea. I went ahead and put the x-pen in the run and put up a tarp for cover in case it rains, but I'm a bit worried the chickens will hop over and bother the chicks so I will do the plastic netting, plus that frees up my x-pen as i use it quite a lot for various things.