Pippin quail
Songster
Ok, so I know there a million and one threads on integrating new chickens/chicks... But I have a bit of a unique (I think) situation about to happen here. Pardon the possibly long post here, I just want to explain everything well enough for it to be understandable. I will also intersperse pictures to break things up! But keep in mind, this might turn into a novel, so you're forewarned and can stop reading now if you want! 
Or skip to the very bottom where I might have an actual question or two and not just my chickens' life stories and coming drama. 
Seriously, TL;DR I'm about to try and introduce 9 hens from 2 different flocks into my current flock of 3.5 month olds, 8 of whom are COCKERELS and only 4 pullets. I also have a mix of 12 chicks from age 4-6 weeks in the brooder who will also need to be integrated soon. Am I insane? Read on to find out the how and why of it all, if you like stories.
I'm going to start at the very beginning of my chicken keeping journey where I probably made my first mistakes. We want egg laying chickens. So we started with eggs! I hatched out 15 adorable chicks this spring, just 3 weeks after moving to our acreage. No coop, no experience. But all things considered everything went fairly well and was an amazing journey. But fast forward 8 weeks or so and of those 15 adorable chicks, 11 ended up being cockerels. Not great for my nice big egg laying flock.
What was I to do next?? Get another 18 eggs to hatch and hope for better odds, of course! Only 9 chicks hatched (due, I think, to some tampering with eggs and incubator by my 2 year old, and attempting a staggered hatch) Anyway, the sex of those 9 chicks is still yet to be determined at 4 and 5 weeks for the two groups.
About a week or two ago I started fretting about the coming winter. The boys will not be around by then. We already butchered the two meanest ones and will hopefully wait for the others to get a little bigger to butcher all but our favorite one. But that should be in about a month or so... And my coop is BIG. If I want 4sqft per chicken I need 24 chickens. Sooooo I definitely need more than my current 4 pullets, 1 cockerel that will stay and the 12 undetermined chicks.
I asked the lady I bought my last eggs from if she had any pullets for sale and she said she actually did have 3 or 4 that were 5 weeks old and she was pretty certain were pullets. So I went and picked those up and being the inexperienced chicken keeper that I am and taking the sellers advice, I stuck the chicks right in the brooder with my 9 who were at the time 4 and 5 weeks old. It was night when I did this and I heard a bit of cheeping while they found the other chicks and the heating pad and then they all went to sleep. I figured they would get along in the morning ok and when I went to check on them and feed/water they all seemed to be doing great. I should have stayed to observe for longer though as my two smallest ended up pecking one of the newbies (who was WAY BIGGER) but they gave her a bloody comb. It looked way worse than it was but I felt so bad! I ended up separating her into a bin beside them where they could see each other but not touch. The other two new chicks seemed fine... But that chick who got pecked is now named Ruby, due to the bright red blood on her comb. I kept her separated while I treated the comb and then put her back in at bedtime because I didn't have a way to keep her warm and it's starting to get chilly at night (they are in the half of the chicken coop that is not holding my other chickens). The next day I saw her get pecked or almost pecked a couple times and she would immediately put her head down and turn away from the pecker. I guess she found her place and they have all been fine since, I think she's at the bottom of that little pecking order. I also am not sure if she's a she because she has the biggest comb of the bunch and even wattles already. The lady who sold her said her salmon faverolles mixes always have bigger combs earlier. So we will see!
Here is little Ruby after being attacked by Flower and Hazel.
Fast forward another week and I started to worry again that half of my 12 in the brooder might be cockerels too, maybe more than half, knowing my track record! So I started looking for pullets/young hens in my area. I found a lady selling her flock of 10 hens and she is willing to deliver them. (They are a mix of barred rocks, buff orpingtons and ameracaunas) I found out that 4 of them are older and no longer really laying, so I told her I just want the 6 young ones... I already have 7 extra cockerels needing to be butchered soon, don't need more free loaders!
I then also found a lady selling 3 Swedish flower hens and I looked at them and fell a little bit in love. So I'm getting those as well.
So now we get to the actual questions I have! I have read a bunch of threads about integrating chickens into a new flock using the look don't touch method. However I do not have a separate run or easy way to make a separate run. I have also read about cluttering up the run and wondering if that would be enough? Providing hiding places, extra feeders and waterers in a few locations in and out of the coop. I could even possibly block off half the run with chicken wire or other leftover fencing, but they would still need to sleep in the coop, as I'm worried about predators being able to get into the run at night, plus it's chilly out. Both ladies I'm getting chickens from seem to think that adding all these new chickens at once will be ok because there's not just one or two that might get picked on. I have my 12 (who are 3.5 months old and mostly cockerels) and I'll be adding 6 from one flock and 3 from another, but they are all a year or more old. Thennn at some point I need to figure out when and how to integrate my babies who are now between 4-6 weeks old! I know, I sound crazy. But if things are not going well with any of the chickens, bullying is happening or that kind of thing, it would be possible for me to kick my kittens out of their half of the shed for a bit and use it to house a few chickens if needed.. My brooder is already in there so it could work, just not my first choice.
So do you think I'm insane for attempting this double flock integration into my already weird flock dynamics? Would it be better if I butchered my cockerels sooner or will they be a good buffer for my young pullets and the new big hens? My pullets are definitely submissive but even with so many cocks they all get along really well still. Minus the two we had to butcher last week because one was going after my daughter and one was going after every other chicken, including mounting other males.
Things to note about my coop: It is 8x12 on the chicken side. There is another full 8x12 side that my kitties and brooder full of chicks currently live in. That could be utilized to separate bullies or something if needed. My run, I don't have the exact measurements but it is definitely wider and longer than my whole coop/shed and I would estimate is 10x30 if not 10x35. I should really measure it for real tomorrow when it stops raining. But my chickens also free range when I'm able to be out there, since they're still small enough to be picked off by a hawk and I'm trying to train my dog to not chase them, etc so have to keep her leashed while they are out. Would it make sense to let my chickens out to free range and put the new chickens in the coop and run for a bit to let them find all the hiding places/food/water before possibly being chased by my chickens? Or will this make my chickens feel even more threatened seeing new birds in their coop?? I know firsthand now from my brooder chicks that sometimes the smallest can be the most feisty, so I do want the bigger hens to know where to hide if they need to. My medium ones already know where everything is. I can take pictures of my cluttering of the run tomorrow and also measure the run.
Ok I didn't actually insert most of the pictures.. But they just show the size of my coop, my chickens, the small chicken tractor I have let me little chicks in during warm days (so the 3.5 month old chickens have seen them up close, but always in a no touch way)
Or skip to the very bottom where I might have an actual question or two and not just my chickens' life stories and coming drama. Seriously, TL;DR I'm about to try and introduce 9 hens from 2 different flocks into my current flock of 3.5 month olds, 8 of whom are COCKERELS and only 4 pullets. I also have a mix of 12 chicks from age 4-6 weeks in the brooder who will also need to be integrated soon. Am I insane? Read on to find out the how and why of it all, if you like stories. I'm going to start at the very beginning of my chicken keeping journey where I probably made my first mistakes. We want egg laying chickens. So we started with eggs! I hatched out 15 adorable chicks this spring, just 3 weeks after moving to our acreage. No coop, no experience. But all things considered everything went fairly well and was an amazing journey. But fast forward 8 weeks or so and of those 15 adorable chicks, 11 ended up being cockerels.
Not great for my nice big egg laying flock.What was I to do next?? Get another 18 eggs to hatch and hope for better odds, of course! Only 9 chicks hatched (due, I think, to some tampering with eggs and incubator by my 2 year old, and attempting a staggered hatch) Anyway, the sex of those 9 chicks is still yet to be determined at 4 and 5 weeks for the two groups.
About a week or two ago I started fretting about the coming winter. The boys will not be around by then. We already butchered the two meanest ones and will hopefully wait for the others to get a little bigger to butcher all but our favorite one. But that should be in about a month or so... And my coop is BIG. If I want 4sqft per chicken I need 24 chickens. Sooooo I definitely need more than my current 4 pullets, 1 cockerel that will stay and the 12 undetermined chicks.
I asked the lady I bought my last eggs from if she had any pullets for sale and she said she actually did have 3 or 4 that were 5 weeks old and she was pretty certain were pullets. So I went and picked those up and being the inexperienced chicken keeper that I am and taking the sellers advice, I stuck the chicks right in the brooder with my 9 who were at the time 4 and 5 weeks old. It was night when I did this and I heard a bit of cheeping while they found the other chicks and the heating pad and then they all went to sleep. I figured they would get along in the morning ok and when I went to check on them and feed/water they all seemed to be doing great. I should have stayed to observe for longer though as my two smallest ended up pecking one of the newbies (who was WAY BIGGER) but they gave her a bloody comb. It looked way worse than it was but I felt so bad! I ended up separating her into a bin beside them where they could see each other but not touch. The other two new chicks seemed fine... But that chick who got pecked is now named Ruby, due to the bright red blood on her comb. I kept her separated while I treated the comb and then put her back in at bedtime because I didn't have a way to keep her warm and it's starting to get chilly at night (they are in the half of the chicken coop that is not holding my other chickens). The next day I saw her get pecked or almost pecked a couple times and she would immediately put her head down and turn away from the pecker. I guess she found her place and they have all been fine since, I think she's at the bottom of that little pecking order. I also am not sure if she's a she because she has the biggest comb of the bunch and even wattles already. The lady who sold her said her salmon faverolles mixes always have bigger combs earlier. So we will see!
Here is little Ruby after being attacked by Flower and Hazel.
Fast forward another week and I started to worry again that half of my 12 in the brooder might be cockerels too, maybe more than half, knowing my track record! So I started looking for pullets/young hens in my area. I found a lady selling her flock of 10 hens and she is willing to deliver them. (They are a mix of barred rocks, buff orpingtons and ameracaunas) I found out that 4 of them are older and no longer really laying, so I told her I just want the 6 young ones... I already have 7 extra cockerels needing to be butchered soon, don't need more free loaders!
I then also found a lady selling 3 Swedish flower hens and I looked at them and fell a little bit in love. So I'm getting those as well.
So now we get to the actual questions I have! I have read a bunch of threads about integrating chickens into a new flock using the look don't touch method. However I do not have a separate run or easy way to make a separate run. I have also read about cluttering up the run and wondering if that would be enough? Providing hiding places, extra feeders and waterers in a few locations in and out of the coop. I could even possibly block off half the run with chicken wire or other leftover fencing, but they would still need to sleep in the coop, as I'm worried about predators being able to get into the run at night, plus it's chilly out. Both ladies I'm getting chickens from seem to think that adding all these new chickens at once will be ok because there's not just one or two that might get picked on. I have my 12 (who are 3.5 months old and mostly cockerels) and I'll be adding 6 from one flock and 3 from another, but they are all a year or more old. Thennn at some point I need to figure out when and how to integrate my babies who are now between 4-6 weeks old! I know, I sound crazy. But if things are not going well with any of the chickens, bullying is happening or that kind of thing, it would be possible for me to kick my kittens out of their half of the shed for a bit and use it to house a few chickens if needed.. My brooder is already in there so it could work, just not my first choice.
So do you think I'm insane for attempting this double flock integration into my already weird flock dynamics? Would it be better if I butchered my cockerels sooner or will they be a good buffer for my young pullets and the new big hens? My pullets are definitely submissive but even with so many cocks they all get along really well still. Minus the two we had to butcher last week because one was going after my daughter and one was going after every other chicken, including mounting other males.
Things to note about my coop: It is 8x12 on the chicken side. There is another full 8x12 side that my kitties and brooder full of chicks currently live in. That could be utilized to separate bullies or something if needed. My run, I don't have the exact measurements but it is definitely wider and longer than my whole coop/shed and I would estimate is 10x30 if not 10x35. I should really measure it for real tomorrow when it stops raining. But my chickens also free range when I'm able to be out there, since they're still small enough to be picked off by a hawk and I'm trying to train my dog to not chase them, etc so have to keep her leashed while they are out. Would it make sense to let my chickens out to free range and put the new chickens in the coop and run for a bit to let them find all the hiding places/food/water before possibly being chased by my chickens? Or will this make my chickens feel even more threatened seeing new birds in their coop?? I know firsthand now from my brooder chicks that sometimes the smallest can be the most feisty, so I do want the bigger hens to know where to hide if they need to. My medium ones already know where everything is. I can take pictures of my cluttering of the run tomorrow and also measure the run.
Ok I didn't actually insert most of the pictures.. But they just show the size of my coop, my chickens, the small chicken tractor I have let me little chicks in during warm days (so the 3.5 month old chickens have seen them up close, but always in a no touch way)
It is a little scary when everything is new! But ventilation is your friend, even more than insulation. My concern is that metal roof, where you may have condensation and water dripping down from that. But I'm no expert in that. Not sure who is, so I will tag a few folks here and if they do not directly know the answer (they probably do, they are very knowledgeable!), they will certainly know who does. As for your very helpful family, if they do not themselves have chickens, just smile and thank them for their concern. Here at BYC you will have the benefit of people with many years of experience, like these:
