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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Catherine Noble <cathie@dungog.net>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] OT Chicken question
  • Date: Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:12:54 +1000

Tameson wrote:
Hoping someone can help me out here...how old do my new batch of chicks need to be before I can put them in the coop with the older chickens? They are currently 7 weeks old now and getting too big for their current coop (rabbit cage).
It's not so much a question of physical size as one of familiarity.
Any new bird you put in an existing cage will affect the pecking order, and there will be a period when it may be attacked by all the current fowl in order to establish it's appropriate place. regrettably, this does not always leave the new bird alive.
When introducing a whole group of birds to another group, this is seen by the fowl as an invasion of territory, and war -will- result.
The best results I've had (no serious fighting or longterm damage to any birds) is to put the birds in cages side by side for about a week, occasionally letting one or the other group out for a few hours, or the day. I use free range not covered run, but this may not be possible if you have local wildlife with an appetite for chicken.
I then let them out (into a very large area-about an acre)at the same time. This means that if one lot chooses to pick on the other, both sides have a fair chance to run away. If you have a rooster with your older chooks, you can also put him in with the newer ones for the week. The older ones know and respect him, so by the end of the week when you let them mingle with the newer birds and they try to push them around, the rooster will usually protect the newer ones from serious attacks by the older birds, and the older birds will listen to him.
Don't expect all your poultry to live in perfect harmony all the time-- they're like us, they constantly jockey for better position, but I've never lost any birds that were introduced to each other in this way.


Catherine




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