when is it safe to add hens

spitfire55

In the Brooder
5 Years
Aug 4, 2014
8
1
35
i am new at raising chickens and is in need of alot of learning . first question; when can i add chickens to a coop already ocuppeid with 3 red sexlings question 2; can they different chickens{ say RIR] or {polish lace} question 3: and what is the safe age to do this
 
Hello there and welcome to BYC!
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It is always best to add chickens to a flock of the same sizes. In other words, if you have 1 year old birds, you woudn't want to add young chicks to this flock until they are nearly the same size. It doesn't matter if some of them are 1 year old and he others are 2 years old, as long as they are close to the same size in body so the playing field is equal.

When you mix new birds into a flock, it is best done over time. Cage or fence off the new birds but keep the new birds in the flock at all times. There is a pecking order with in every flock and you can't just throw birds together. They need to get to know each other slowly.

So keep the new birds separated like this for 3 or 4 weeks. This also will serve as a quarantine period in case one of the new birds is carrying something that could be passed to your existing flock.

After 3 or 4 weeks, you can mix them together. There will still be some pecking order squabbles, but it shouldn't be bloody or anything. Of course always intervene if it does go this way.

Put out more feeding and watering stations so the new birds don't have to compete for food or water as the original flock may guard these areas and not allow the new birds food or water.

Good luck and welcome to our flock!
 
thank- you i have already done all that and the last thing i have done is enter them all together in the run but now i need to figuire out when i can start adding them together in the same coop at nite time i have 3 red sexlings age 30-33 wks 3RIR age 15-18wk
 
If all these birds have been kept together for several weeks time and have seen each other from behind wire, then you can mix them all together. They are all large enough to be together at this point. I would wait til morning before you mix them in so they have time during the day to work things out instead of at roosting time tonight.
 
Welcome to BYC! Glad you decided to join our flock. You've received some good advice from TwoCrows. Please feel free to ask if you have any more questions. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck in introducing your new chickens to the flock.
 
Welcome to BYC
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Glad you joined us! Good luck with the introduction.
 
thank-you everyone for your input ///////////// so as of this morning i have decided to move the smaller coop out of my new 12x24 pen and build a 5x9 pen for just my 2 roosters hope that will be a big enough pen for them during the winter months ////// please give me your input thanks again
 
Rule of thumb is 4 sg.feet per bird inside the coop and 10 sg.feet per bird in the run(pen)

you small pen(run) is 5 x 9 so that gives you 45 sq.feet - plenty for just 2 roosters.
 

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