Will chickens raised from chicks get along?

[chixcoop]

I'm thinking of buying fertile eggs that I'm going to give to my future Buff Orpingtons. If I had Dominiques, Easter Eggers, and Silkies all raised by my hens, would they get along with each other, and my pre-exixting Welsummer, Buff Orpington and Barred Rock? Also, would RIR's get along with my flock if one of my hens raised it as well?

 

[FriAndRoo]

based on personal experience I would say they should get along fine. All of my chickens are different breeds and they all get along swimmingly, and will say though that if one hen is raising a batch of chicks you might want to separate her from the other hens. The reason I say this is one of my girls recently attacked a chick belonging to another hen. He survived, but still has some battle scars. Not sure what the instinct was there, maybe she just wanted in the nest to lay her eggs, but all the same they are kept separate now, same pen but I have a net wall between them that keeps the little chicks safe from the non-mamas.

 

[chixcoop]

based on personal experience I would say they should get along fine. All of my chickens are different breeds and they all get along swimmingly, and will say though that if one hen is raising a batch of chicks you might want to separate her from the other hens. The reason I say this is one of my girls recently attacked a chick belonging to another hen. He survived, but still has some battle scars. Not sure what the instinct was there, maybe she just wanted in the nest to lay her eggs, but all the same they are kept separate now, same pen but I have a net wall between them that keeps the little chicks safe from the non-mamas.

Thanks, I'll make sure to keep that in mind!

 

[Pork Pie]

In the past, i have let mum and chicks have free range access with the rest of the flock (but with their own broody cage within the main coop) from 3 days old and the chicks have been fine. I recently bought 4 production layers and i can have a feeling that they would indeed attack little chicks. Next time i will plan as FriAndRoo if my suspicions are proved correct (i have a small run that i can attach to the mini-coop for mum and chicks).

CT

However you do it, if you can, have the chicks hatched in the main coop, and divided the space with netting and so the flock can see the new additions. This improves acceptance into the flock.

 

[lazy gardener]

The most important factor in any flock is to ensure that there is plenty of room. A minimum of 4 s.f. in the coop, and 10 s.f. in the run/bird. I have also had issues with other hens attacking chicks. My broody hen was low gal on the pecking order, and several of the hens loved to separate Mama from her babies just to torment her. Even so, babies were integrated into flock around 6 weeks as I recall. The biggest issue holding back integration was hawk predation, so I had to keep the babies tractored unless I was outside to supervise them. The minute I let them out to range with the rest of the flock, the hawk would be doing his fly by's.

 

[FriAndRoo]

The most important factor in any flock is to ensure that there is plenty of room.  A minimum of 4 s.f. in the coop, and 10 s.f. in the run/bird.  I have also had issues with other hens attacking chicks.  My broody hen was low gal on the pecking order, and several of the hens loved to separate Mama from her babies just to torment her.  Even so, babies were integrated into flock around 6 weeks as I recall.  The biggest issue holding back integration was hawk predation, so I had to keep the babies tractored unless I was outside to supervise them.  The minute I let them out to range with the rest of the flock, the hawk would be doing his fly by's.

my mamma hen is the top bird, but one still decided to attack her chick, they have a 5x10 shed for a coop and a 5x5 run but I partitioned off about a third of the coop with bird netting, so far it's going well and Little Domino is healing nicely!

 

[Pork Pie]

The most important factor in any flock is to ensure that there is plenty of room. A minimum of 4 s.f. in the coop, and 10 s.f. in the run/bird. I have also had issues with other hens attacking chicks. My broody hen was low gal on the pecking order, and several of the hens loved to separate Mama from her babies just to torment her. Even so, babies were integrated into flock around 6 weeks as I recall. The biggest issue holding back integration was hawk predation, so I had to keep the babies tractored unless I was outside to supervise them. The minute I let them out to range with the rest of the flock, the hawk would be doing his fly by's.

Hawks are certainly a real pain. I have lost 2 chicks to hawks in the past, but ironically enough - they were around 2 months old. Personally, i prefer to let my flock (and chicks) free range in the knowledge that i am likely to lose the odd one but it doesn't stop me from going crazy when i see one of my little ones bite the bullet.

CT

 

[lazy gardener]

This hawk was a beast. He took out 2 of my full sized birds, just tore them to shreds. They outweighed him.

 

[Pork Pie]

This hawk was a beast. He took out 2 of my full sized birds, just tore them to shreds. They outweighed him.

Jeepers, thats terrible. Where i live, we have lots of black kites, and the flock ignore them, since they are largely scavengers and pose no threat - its the smaller hawks that do the damage here.

CT