When i put the young chicks in witht he older girls

[loupan]

I was just wondering when i come to put my young chicks in with the big girls ( not for a while they still far to young ) whats the best way to do it my big girls are so soft they have been handreared so very friendly ,they also live in the coop with 3 rabbits and they all get on fantastic im just praying they will accept the new chicks

i have a huge area so they will have plenty of space ,also i have been putting the baby chicks in an old bunny run so they have been able to see them and dont seem worried at all ,any advise so i can be ready would be great

 

[Grog]

I do the night time drop and run. Just put them in the coop after the big girls have settled in they should be ok

 

[Lollipop]

It`s in a chickens nature to resent strangers. Even big softies will attack younger chickens. If you put them together at night as suggested, be sure to be there when they wake up to prevent bloodshed. The one good thing you have going for you is that they have lots of room to escape. You should also wait until the youngsters are 3-4 months old and pen them in site of the older girls until the intro date. Good luck and Merry Christmas........Pop

 

[SteveBaz]

First off forgive me for cut and pasting a previous post but it is perfect for you question.

First off understand there are times it works and then times it doe not work. I guess I was lucky and had the time to play referee. I had to do it for 2 weeks. I went out with the kids in the am with coffee and had obstacles all over the place like rocks, perches, boxes to run through the big girls could not get into. I even had a milk carton that was top down and put food in there and the kids could get in the cutouts on the side I made and the big girls could not. I put a rock on top and as much as they tried the big girls could not get in there. Then during the day I had a screen that divided the coop I slid it in the middle and put food right next to each other on each side of the screen so they could see each other while they were eating the treats and meals. That is the most dangerous time for the little girls bc the pecking order dictates who eats first and who eats last and if the little ones get inpatient the big girls will punish them for the error for sure and whack them but good. Now out in the run that I played referee I played the rooster and if one of the big girls picked on the little girls I would chase and run after and run down and corner that hen and pick on her big time. I would embarrass her so bad to the point I would carry her around so she even had to re-establish herself as the top hen. I would put her in jail the day while the others had fun. During the week of introduction I would take one of the lower pecking order hens that were gentle like my BO and let it go in with the kids. There is a thing maybe you are not aware of called a pecking mask to prevent the very same thing about bloodying other flock members and sometimes you have to go to the extreme and invest in that. At times you may introduce a great Rooster but he is very young and one of the top hens do not like him or give time a hard time and do not want to relinquish her roll as lead hen to a young rooster and beat the heck out of him.

Best of luck to you when it happens, work at it daily and you will be successful with patients and time invested but will be worth it in the end.

 

[Fierlin1182]

One month old for us. There was a lot of pecking, so you might want to introduce them slowly - perhaps in a different section of the coop first, or maybe just leave them there for the day but bring them back inside for night? The older girls tend to get protective of their space and attack any newbies if they aren't allowed to get used to them first.

 

[loupan]

Great advise thankyou i think i will put a partition down the outside coop for them and the old bedroom the girls have im gonna put in one side outside was going to put it in there anyway then they have there own bedroom ,plus the big girls will have the inside coop and a bit of the outside coop hopefully after couple of weeks they can all be out together

Here is a pic of my coop the big girls bedroom is at the back ,and the inside coop will have a plastic roof in week or so

Not the hilton but ti think its pretty good

 

[SteveBaz]

Holly smokes loupan have enough room there?

Most of us barely have any room and I am so jealous of the amount of space you have available. Fantastic

 

[loupan]

Thankyou i must admit as my DH was making it it did seem to get bigger and bigger

im stoked though he is just worried the bigger it is the more chickens i will want

,Not bad for a Backyard coop aye he is clever

 

[Fierlin1182]

That is one great coop. I think they'll be fine!
It mustve taken you a long time to build, it's quite a whopper. My coop is about half that size. Aren't your chickens lucky!

(Not that they spend all that much time in the coop anyhow

)

 

[loupan]

Thankyou it took us about a week from start to finish that was having to stop becouse of the rain though ,they share it with my daughters 3 bunnies to and to be honest i still let them come out they love to follow me round the garden when im pulling weeds and also when we sat out having a drink they love to come sit on our knees does get a little crampt when they all try to perch on one leg though

they are soooo loving i love them to bits just hope these 4 babies i have are hens will be so gutted if they are not i am so attatched already

i just have no idea at the min