When to introduce new chick to rest of flock

[racoxy]

I have a banty with only one chick. I have her and the chick separated from the rest of my chickens.
At what point should I separate the hen and chick? Will she do this herself? At what point do I introduce the chick to the rest of the chickens?

First chick hatched from a broody hen...sorry for all the questions....

But any advise would be greatly appreciated!

 

[austintgraf]

Unless you feel there is a reason to seperate the chick from her mom I would suggest just letting them do their thing. Once the chick feels it is ready it will start doing its own thing. But if you want the hen back out laying and such i'd suggest at least giving the chick one month before you take its mom away. As for the introduction to the flock the longer you wait the better. If the chick was hatched in the flock the mom would protect her and would instantly be part of the flock assuming the hen is high enough up in the pecking order. Seeing as they have been seperated you should probably wait till the chick is closer to the size of the chickens in your flock. Otherwise she is prone to being picked on and possibly killed. Before reintroduction you should put them in with the flock but like in a wire dog crate so the can see and interact somewhat without all the fighting. Then after bout a week let them join the flock

 

[racoxy]

Thanks for suggestions.
I have them kind of in a wire dog crate like you were talking about. So the rest of the flock is seeing them now.
So will the hen kind of let me know when she's ready to kind of "wean" the chick?

 

[cluck-darth-peep]

Hi everyone. There are a lot of fantastic suggestions introducing new chicks with the older chickens. But my question is, how do you keep the Grower food and Layer food separate when they are all in the same coop? THe chickens don't know the difference so the layers will eat the Grower food, and the grower chicks will eat the layer food????? OR, do the new chickens just eat the layer food and leave it at that?

 

[JodyJo]

Quote:
I have a mixed flock, of laying hens and 12 week olds, I still provide Starter/Grower for all with oyster shell on the side...when the younger girls reach POL, I will switch them all to Layer Feed...just seemed the easiest way of doing it...for me at least.

 

[JodyJo]

Quote:
This is what I did with my younger ones:

they are now integrated in after about 2 weeks of being in this cage...I let the older ones out to free range, left the run shut, and the smaller ones in the run..
at night, scooped up the little ones, tucked them in the cage and let the big girls in...worked great...now they are all together...a bit of pecking still, but not bad!

 

[austintgraf]

Great!

and I really prefer to keep my layers away from chick starter because it has extra fat and I feel it slows egg production but then again I am no expert

I guess its all about matter of opinion.