When do i let my younger pullets in with the older ones?

[smileysjs1]

My young pullets will be 11 weeks old on Tuesday. My older ones are around 16-17 weeks maybe. The younger ones have been in the coop and the older ones have been in the run. I let the older ones go out and free range during the day and let the littles into the run. So they do see each other but they haven't been together yet. When can I go ahead and let them all be together?

 

[BaronRenfrew]

How big is the run? If the space is big enough they won't bother each other at all.

Its not so much an age thing but a size thing. If they're sorta close, they'll be ok.

Think of this... it's a territory thing. If you put the older birds in the same run as the younger birds, the older birds will be out of place and will be less aggressive. Flip it around and the younger ones will have a hard time. Better yet, move them all to another place at the same time.

Or put them together at night, so they'll wake up together.

That's always worked for me.

 

[jossanne]

I say try it today! I mixed chicks at 4 weeks with 8 week and 5 month chickens, and they're all doing splendidly. It's been a couple of months now, and the 5 older girls still rule the roost, but they're all fine. I started with the 5 older girls, and put the 6 mid-age girls in a wire kennel inside the hen house for a week or two. When I let them out, it was no big deal. So I put the 4-week-old babies in the kennel for a few days, and when I let them out I sat in the hen house just to make sure all would be fine. We've had no problems.

If they've been where they can see each other through the fence for a while, they'll probably be fine. There might be a little chest bumping and bossing around to prove who's the queen, but they should get used to each other pretty quickly.

 

[smileysjs1]

I'm going to try it today. Wish me luck!

 

[jossanne]

Good luck!

 

[Cetawin]

Good luck. I had great success mixing 5 eighteen week olds in with 6 twenty-eight week olds...They were close in size and I sat there with the "stick" and when the big girls got out of hand, I used the stick to gently separate them...then I just stayed there and when the big girls got a bit too much, I showed them the stick and they turned around. They did fine after about an hour of me setting the rules. They have been in together for 3 weeks and no major problems.

They had been in tractors next to each other for a couple of weeks prior to the move too.