Chicks in the coop with older hens

[Lrnadoon]

I have read that you are supposed to lock your chicks in the coop for at least a week before letting them into the run. How do you do this when they are sharing the coop with older hens? I have a run within a run that I have had them out in during the day and then back in the house at night, but I am not sure what to do when it is time to be outside full time. I hope I am not confusing them by taking them out to this different run. I wanted to start exposing the chicks and big hens as much as possible to each other. The 5 week old chicks love being out there!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Locking them in is only if there's no older birds occupying the coop. Sounds like you've started see but don't touch, is that correct - the hens can see the chicks but not yet touch them?

You'd want to integrate the chicks out in the run first where there's a lot more room to escape before worrying about getting them to share coop space. IF the coop is big enough to put a cage inside you can also manually put them in at night, but I don't worry about that until the end of integration myself as a crate/cage does eat up space.

 

[BGcoop]

I have a large walk in coop and we use a cage for the young chicks, then after a bit we open a small hole that the chicks can come and go through but the adult hens can’t- that way the chicks have a safe space to get away to. But be careful because adult hens can’t squish themselves through some pretty small holes when they are determined enough! My new favorite option though is having a broody hen raise the chicks- with her protecting them from the rest of the flock they seem to become integrated fully within a week or two!

 

[gtaus]

I have read that you are supposed to lock your chicks in the coop for at least a week before letting them into the run. How do you do this when they are sharing the coop with older hens?

As mentioned, that does not work if you already have older hens in the coop.

The 5 week old chicks love being out there!

I keep my chicks in the brooder until they are 8 weeks old. At that age, they are usually big enough to run away from the older hens and I have never lost a young chick from pecking to death.

Last time I integrated my 8-week-old chicks into the existing flock, I had to manually pick up some of them in the run and put them in the coop at night for a couple of days at sunset. But they soon figured out that the older hens were going into the coop to roost and would not bother them. So, they started following the older hens into the coop at sundown.

My younger chicks would sleep on the coop floor, but after a number of weeks, they all found their way to the roost bars.

 

[Lrnadoon]

Locking them in is only if there's no older birds occupying the coop. Sounds like you've started see but don't touch, is that correct - the hens can see the chicks but not yet touch them?

You'd want to integrate the chicks out in the run first where there's a lot more room to escape before worrying about getting them to share coop space. IF the coop is big enough to put a cage inside you can also manually put them in at night, but I don't worry about that until the end of integration myself as a crate/cage does eat up space.

Yes they can all see each other but not touch. I only have 3 big girls because of losses so I got 10 chicks. 10 chicks is a lot to contain in a small cage without some type of feather pecking etc...my coop IMO is huge but I think my chicks would have to may issues with not enough room. I will probably take your advice and at 8 weeks let them all roam the big run during the day and then just make sure everyone is making it into the coop at night. Thanks so much for your feedback!

 

[Lrnadoon]

As mentioned, that does not work if you already have older hens in the coop.



I keep my chicks in the brooder until they are 8 weeks old. At that age, they are usually big enough to run away from the older hens and I have never lost a young chick from pecking to death.

Last time I integrated my 8-week-old chicks into the existing flock, I had to manually pick up some of them in the run and put them in the coop at night for a couple of days at sunset. But they soon figured out that the older hens were going into the coop to roost and would not bother them. So, they started following the older hens into the coop at sundown.

My younger chicks would sleep on the coop floor, but after a number of weeks, they all found their way to the roost bars.

Great advice. I think I will keep taking the littles out to the temporary run for a few more weeks and then at 8 weeks open it up for everyone to "officially" meet. When you manually picked them up did you put them through their coop door I assume?

 

[Lrnadoon]

I have a large walk in coop and we use a cage for the young chicks, then after a bit we open a small hole that the chicks can come and go through but the adult hens can’t- that way the chicks have a safe space to get away to. But be careful because adult hens can’t squish themselves through some pretty small holes when they are determined enough! My new favorite option though is having a broody hen raise the chicks- with her protecting them from the rest of the flock they seem to become integrated fully within a week or two!

A broody hen sounds WAY less work than buying chicks! I am wondering if maybe I keep taking my littles to their temporary run outside for the older girls to see them and then for maybe for a day or two lock them up in the coop just so they know that is their new home. Our coop is rather large but thinking of locking up the 10 chicks for a long period of time in a small space sounds like trouble! Some of the chicks are pretty bossy!

 

[gtaus]

Great advice. I think I will keep taking the littles out to the temporary run for a few more weeks and then at 8 weeks open it up for everyone to "officially" meet. When you manually picked them up did you put them through their coop door I assume?

I have a little ramp going up to my pop door for the coop. I will catch the young chick(s) and put them on the ramp, head towards the pop door, and kind of scoot them into the chicken coop. In a day or two, they seem to figure out how to walk up the ramp and go inside on their own.

One advantage to having older hens already in the flock is the younger chicks can just follow them up the ramp and into the coop - once they are less afraid of being picked on by the mean old girls. That's why I wait until they are at least 8 weeks old before I integrate the young girls with the older hens.

There will always be some pecking order bullying going on. But as long as none of them are getting hurt - drawing blood - you just have to let that sorting order run its course. At 8 weeks old, my younger chicks can run away from any bad pecking without much damage. Still, I watch them carefully for the first days of full integration.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

You understand that at 5 weeks your chicks are too old to introduce to a broody hen, right? But it's good to know if you get a broody hen at some point, then you can offer her some day-old chicks to raise. Good luck with your integration!

 

[Ridgerunner]

How big (in feet or meters) is your coop? How big (in feet or meters) are the two runs? Just because it feels huge to you doesn't mean it is big enough for the chickens. How much room you have makes a huge difference in integration.

Where are you in general. My interest is in what your weather is like where you are. At five weeks old your chicks may well be ready to move outside now. Most chicks are fully feathered by that age and able to handle the weather but if you are having extremes in cold or wet that could affect it.

With my chicks they typically avoid the adults until the pullets start to lay. Until then I essentially have two separate flocks. During the day they stay where the adults are not. At night they do not sleep on the same roosts with the adults but stay away. I have an 8 feet x 12 feet coop and over 2,000 square feet outside. They have enough room to avoid the adults which makes integration a lot easier.

People with a lot less room go through integration all of the time, usually successfully. There are tricks we use to take advantage of what room we have. But I need to know what you have to work with to see what I might suggest.

My brooder is in the coop. Mine go in there straight out of the incubator or from the post office. Weather permitting, when mine are five weeks old I open the brooder and let them make their way with the flock. My integration is that easy. They were raised with the flock and they have room to avoid the adults. They know to return to the coop at night, since they were raised in there.

If your weather is OK and your coop is big enough, I'd suggest building a brooder in the coop and keeping them in there for a week before you let them out. You've already started the "look but don't touch" so this might be pretty easy. But what conditions are you working with?

My idea of a successful integration is that no one gets hurt. That's all. All the eating and roosting together and hanging together can come later when they nature more. As long as no one gets hurt, life is good.