Integrating mature birds with 7 week old chicks

[Barred4Life]

Look at what we got! 2 hens, 2 roosters. Easy to tell the pecking order in this group. The hen that is not in the photo...you guessed it, is at the bottom of the chain, hehe.


The rooster on the left is like twice the size as the other one...quite intimidating when it's your first time around mature birds! Althought they've been pretty docile when it comes to picking them up, etc. so no complaints up to now

 

[Lollipop]

A good hen/roo ratio is about 8:1 or 10:1 so your 2 roos is just fine as long as they get along together.

This ratio is recommended for fertility. Has nothing to do with bare backs on hens. The bare backs would be the result of over exuberence on the part of a young rooster. They tend to have labidos like teenage boys until they reach a year old.

B4L, that sure is odd that those roosters are so vastly different in size, being from the same flock..........Pop

 

[Barred4Life]

Quote:
Yeah from the same flock but not the same hatch. The big rooster is potentially mixed with another breed? Regardless, the two rooster don't have to fight for pecking order since it's so obvious who the top one is, haha. They seem to be good tempered birds anyway

And this morning we check on them...and we got our first egg! We are new to having chicken, so it's been an exciting morning, hehe.

 

[MadHens]

Beautiful egg! Never thought I'd say something like that before my fascination with backyard chickens! We are getting our first batch of chicks sent to us this week! Can you tell I'm excited?!!

 

[Barred4Life]

Beautiful egg! Never thought I'd say something like that before my fascination with backyard chickens! We are getting our first batch of chicks sent to us this week! Can you tell I'm excited?!!

Well we started with chicks 6 chicks, 5 weeks ago...now I have 12 chicks and 4 mature birds...it's hard to not get chicken fever, lol. And then to find an egg this morning...that's pretty awesome! Oh I'm hooked now.
Can't wait for my young pullets to start laying now

(still a few months away for those, hehe)

We got our girls to paint the ''nursery''

 

[cupman]

I'm going to offer a differing opinion than most. I think you can integrate mature with chicks as young as five weeks. I just introduced 14 chicks and 2 turkeys(both 5 weeks old) to my flock earlier this week. They fight a little while at first, you just sort of have to watch them. They've been together for 5 days now and fighting has virtually stopped. They fought for the first day but have since calmed down. The roosters don't mess with the chicks either because they don't view them as a threat. This has been my experience at least.

 

[Barred4Life]

So I wanted to update and say that althought we keep our mature birds and are chicks separated in the coop, we let them range together all day, and we've had no problem. If anything it's better to have the adults around. The mature hens were a bit nasty at first, just letting them know they were the top hens. But the rooster protect the chicks when they're outside. How awesome are roosters! They make certain noises when they think there's danger and the chicks run in the coop! Haha, it's my first year with chicken so all these things are so awesome to discover.
I also got a d'uccle bantam rooster and he sleeps with the chicks (I didn't want an extra rooster the mess up the rooster-hen ration that seems to be working), and he just loves having chicken his own size around him. He did peck at them a bit, but again, just to make sure he's top rooster and now everyone gets along

Chicken are so interesting!

 

[what did I do]

Yeah from the same flock but not the same hatch. The big rooster is potentially mixed with another breed? Regardless, the two rooster don't have to fight for pecking order since it's so obvious who the top one is, haha. They seem to be good tempered birds anyway 
And this morning we check on them...and we got our first egg! We are new to having chicken, so it's been an exciting morning, hehe.

Do I see an incubator in your future?

 

[Barred4Life]

Do I see an incubator in your future?

Is it that obvious?! Oh yeah we've been talking about getting an incubator and - or letting a hen be a momma if we get a broody one when our chicks grow up. For now we're enjoying the fresh eggs for breakfast!

 

[what did I do]

 Is it that obvious?! Oh yeah we've been talking about getting an incubator and - or letting a hen be a momma if we get a broody one when our chicks grow up. For now we're enjoying the fresh eggs for breakfast!

My I suggest starting with two incubators.