Can I start putting the younger chicks in the coop?

[KBsChickies]

I have three 13 week old hens (barnyard mix) and ten 8 week olds (5 Silkies and 5 Lavender Orpingtons.)

I’ve had the brooder in the run for 2 weeks, 1 week of only supervised mingling and for the past week I’ve just let them be together all day except for when the bigger 3 go into the coop at night.
(I have cameras in the coop and run and have monitored them throughout each day as well)

Only one of the bigger hens boops the little ones and kind of corals them here and there but nothing overly aggressive and the little ones have seemingly learned their place The other 2 bigger ones are fairly indifferent.

My question is, can I safely add the little ones to the coop now or should I still separate at night? And if I keep them separate, when could I add them to the coop?

 

[User690263]

I think that you should be fine to have them together overnight as you said that the big ones have mostly stopped their aggressive behavior. If it doesn't go well, you can always move back a step or two then try again after a little while

 

[rosemarythyme]

I would go ahead and try it. If you're worried about how they'll get on in the coop, if there's space you can put a dog crate in there and house the chicks inside that for a few days, or you can temporarily fence off a portion of the coop for the chicks.

Otherwise if there isn't space for the above, do you have more than one roost so the chicks don't have to share with the adults if the adults aren't willing?

 

[Ridgerunner]

What do your facilities look like? How big (in feet or meters) is your coop? How big (in feet or meters) is your run? What does the inside of the coop look like? Photos of your facilities could help.

You are dealing with living animals. I cannot give you any guarantees as to how safe it will be now or how safe it will be in the future if you wait. Like Rosemary, I'd try it now. Actually I would have tried it a long time ago.

If I knew specific details of your facilities I might be able to offer specific suggestions for your set-up and situation. Since I don't all I can do is be generic. You've already done the "see but don't touch" and let them mingle outside with good results.

My suggestion is to wait until it is really dark and lock the young ones in the coop with the older ones. I just toss them onto the coop floor and lock them in. It should be too dark for them to see so nothing bad should happen overnight. The next morning be out there at daybreak to see how it is going. If things are peaceful, open the pop door and walk away. If things are not peaceful open the pop door and see what happens. Chickens should come running out of the pop door. If it does not return to peaceful within a couple of minutes look inside and see what is going on and if you need to intervene. When I do this, I'm down there every morning at daybreak until I'm sure it will be peaceful. Then I can wait to let them out. That is usually just a couple of times for mine but I have a big coop and places for the young ones to go to get away from the older. I have no idea what your coop looks like.

What I typically see when I first go down there is that the older are on the coop floor while the younger are up on the roosts away from the older. My roosts are high enough that the roosts are a safe spot. I do not know if yours are.

With a five week difference in their ages, yours might immediately merge into one flock or the younger may avoid the older and form a sub-flock until the younger mature enough to start laying. They are living animals, I cannot give you any guarantees. Your main goal with this is that no one gets hurt. All of that merging and becoming one flock will happen when they are ready for it to happen.

Good luck!