by Jennifer Sartell of Iron Oak Farm
Right now at Iron Oak Farm we have chickens at all different age levels. I have an existing adult flock in our coop; teenagers who are too old for the brooder; and week old chicks still in the house. Balancing all these birds and providing for their different developmental needs can be tricky. Especially if you don’t have a huge farm with lots of different pens or areas to keep a few isolated members.
The first year is usually a cinch. You get your tiny little flock, everyone grows up together and everyone goes out into the coop together. Done! No pecking order problems, no introduction phases, everyone gets along.
But what about the next year? How do you integrate new spring chicks into an existing flock?
Another issue that I face (and maybe you’re experiencing this as well) is that I have different birds/breeds coming available at different times. We picked up some Leghorns, Welsummers and Bantams early in the season, they are now (what I would refer to as) teenagers. They’re feathered out, but still very tiny compared to our adult hens.
I also have some tiny week-old Buff Orphingtons and Black Jersey Giants in the brooder. I’m waiting for a call on some Partridge Cochins and I even have plans to fire up the incubator later in the season with some Oliver Eggers.
Here’s some insight as to what we’re doing with our revolving flock, and a few suggestions to make this transition easy!
Why Separate?
Why not just place the feathered-out chicks into the pen with your adults? They’re all chickens after all?
You would think that they would all just get along, and sometimes, they do. But…sometimes they don’t. Pecking order can be a brutal process. Depending on the type of chickens you raise, how much space is in your coop and other magical factors that only chickens understand. Even after following all these careful separation steps, I’ve still had the rare occurrence of a chick getting injured by a territorial adult. It’s usually a head wound. They’ll grab the head feathers a little to roughly and it causes a sore. Sometimes, if it’s not caught in time, other members of the flock will be drawn to this spot and continue to peck the poor chick. So best to be overly cautious and try to avoid this.
The Dorm Room
There’s a few ways to go about separating birds and introducing different groups at different ages. But more than likely you’re going to need a second holding pen, we call this the dorm room. It’s like the teenage party wing, where the chicks are still learning how to be adult chickens. They’re out of the nest, but not quite into the adult world. I’m lucky in that we have a few different pens around the farm where I can set up a teenage wing, or an outdoor brooder if the situation calls for it.
Ideally, this area would be part of your existing coop with some sort of see-through, smell-through partition like chicken wire, garden fencing or a large dog crate. This works best because the adult chickens get used to seeing the chicks. They can interact with them somewhat, but the chicks are still safe.
When to Move?
I start our chicks indoors in these wonderful large-animal water troughs. They work great and will be my go-to brooder for many years to come. (For more on indoor brooding tips check out my posts Raising Chicks and 5 Ways to Better the Brooding Experience.)
Once the chicks are feathered out and getting too old/messy for the indoor brooder, we move them to the teenage wing, which is a sectioned area in front of our turkey pen connected to our coop. I keep them here until they are about 2/3 the size of our adults. It doesn’t take long.
They key is that you want them introduced, especially if you have cockerels that will be living with roosters, before the males start crowing. This will prevent cock-fighting. Pecking order is different than cock-fighting, and if done right, the young cockerels learn where they belong in the flock, and you shouldn’t have a problem with raising more than one rooster. (For more about raising multiple roosters read my post Keeping Roosters Together.)
How to Introduce
Sometimes it works well to introduce chickens at night. They sleep together, smell each other, and everyone wakes up none-the-wiser. This works “in theory”. However, I’ve learned the hard way that if you’re going to try this, be willing to get up early the next morning to check on everyone.
The day you decide to introduce, be willing to spend a good amount of time watching your chicks interact with your adult flock. There will be some pecking and chasing and that’s ok. Let this occur to an extent. Sometimes the chicks will be chased to a corner with their heads down, where they will stay for a long time. Some of the hens will give them a good peck on the head if they attempt to eat before other hens, which is why it’s smart to have more than one food dish. This is all normal behavior, and although it might be a little sad to watch, it’s part of your new flock’s dynamic. They’re communicating with each other and it should be a short process.
When to Step In
Don’t remove a chick unless the pecking/chasing is relentless or dangerous. Each time the chick is removed, it will have to begin the pecking order over again, so if it’s not in danger of being wounded, best to let it get done and over with. If you do feel that the pecking is getting out of hand, I’ve found it works better to remove the aggressor rather than the chick. By removing the adult and placing them in a separate area for a while, this sometimes confuses the territorial behavior and when the chicken returns to the flock, it has to re-adjust to it’s surroundings and tends to leave the chicks alone.
Hopefully these tips will help this spring to those of you who are adding to your flock. Do you have any tips on how to introduce new members to an existing flock? I’d love to hear them! Share your comments below or on the Community Chicken’s Facebook Page.
7 Comments
I have had two pullets in a large cage in the run for three weeks at night I put them in the coop in a nesting box. I have tried to integrate them in the flock and the hens are ruthless! One pullet get an open wound on the top of its wing, I was standing there watching and before I could get to her they injured her. What to do??
We are planning on getting a couple more chicks this week (later than I had planned but life got in the way). This was a very timely article so I at least have an idea of how to proceed!
so glad you have this page. we have several different ages of chickens. our teens are almost ready for the big coop. this helps out a lot. thank you
I only have one 6×10 walk-in coop and no barn so what I’ve done is cut another pophole in my coop, under the large catch board to my roost. I built a collapsible cage that fits under it with an opening that lines up with the pophole. When I need to segregate, I simply put up the cage, add a temporary divider fence in my run and viola’. When it’s time to integrate, I just take everything down but leave both popholes open so the young ones still have their own entrance and they can’t get cornered in the coop until things settle down. It can get funny watching some of the racing in and out and by the time cold weather sets in things are worked out. This can also function as a brooder if I’m lucky enough to have a momma with good timing.
Thank you so much for this article. Now I have and idea of how old the chicks are, started getting them Beginning of March , so Teen and a pre teen, I’m thinking of merging end of May, do to weather here in NH. Your tips will make things easier. No roo here 🙁 again Thank You. 🙂
I wish I had read this a week ago! I had to move my teenagers out of their tiny chicken tractor. ended up taking my rooster and his three barred rock beauties out of the big house and putting HIM into the tractor. then put the babies into the big house with the mature laying brown hens. those brown hens are nasties and it still is a bit sad. BUT 9 of the teens are going to be a LOT bigger than the brownies, so I just hope they can survive the hassle. and the 5 welsummers are fast and flighty so eventually it will all settle down. BUT I was gifted 3 new barred rock babies from my son’s girlfriend’s landlady’s bathtub (long story) and those babes are going to need a space soon. and I have 24 chicks coming on Saturday. EEK. time to get the hammer and fencing happening!!!!!
What should a person do with an overly aggressive Roo? My roo is relentless to other birds for an extensive amount of time. He’s not people aggressive, but when new hens come along it’s more like rape than anything else, and a new roo, you can forget it. He’s a beautiful bird, great watcher, and with the birds that learn to “obey his every will” he is a pretty decent roo, but i hate merging new birds into the flock because of his territorial aggression, and his treatment to the new hens. Can’t help but to feel sorry for them, as he is relentless.