When to introduce new chicks to adult flock? Parakeet grit?

[BellaLulaFarm]

Thanks, all. I had not thought of using regular sandy dirt for scratch, so will try that tomorrow. We live in the sticks, so have no pet store.

I can't divide my henhouse, since all the nesting boxes are on one side, but I like the idea of dividing the run, and have an extra portable nesting box set up that I can probably use for this purpose.

I am interested to see if anyone has a reply to NonTypicalCPA's question about when to start them on grit, as I figured it was as soon as they were taking treats/oatmeal.

Thanks for all the fast replies!

 

[felidaet]

You start them on grit as soon as you feed them anything other than chick starter feed.

 

[journey11]

Oh goodness, if it were me, I think you need to let the chicks get much, much bigger first, so they can better defend themselves or they could be badly injured/killed. Your older flock already has an established pecking order and won't like the addition of any newcomers at first. I didn't integrate mine until they were 18 weeks, and then slowly at first, letting them all range outside for about 2 weeks before putting them in the coop together at night. The worst picking goes on while they are on the roost. JMO, better safe than sorry. Maybe you can construct a temporary shelter for the young ones with their own run until they get big enough to go in. I made a PVC chicken tractor for mine, just for this purpose.

 

[jackiefunsize]

i've noticed, when my adult chickens are in the garden doing what they wanna do.... and my 7 week old chicks are in the run.... my adults are pecking each other more... will a good anti peaking spray help.... and to use it on my babys when i add them to the older ones.. when the time is right

 

[BellaLulaFarm]

Update on the grit: I put a cookie sheet of sandy dirt in their nursery, and they went to town. It sounded like a room of woodpeckers. I'll be getting them new dirt regularily, it seems.

On the other hand, other treats (celery tops, tomato ends) are ignored and walked on. Guess I'll stick with dirt as treat.