Introducing the baby chicks to the adult chickens

Our baby chicks are now 7 weeks old and it is now time to start integrating them with the adult chickens. Since they left the brooder at about 5 weeks old they have spent their time in a cozy little building we call the green barn. We did build a little “patio” area for them out of wooden pallets and chicken wire, to allow the adult chickens to see them from a safe distance while they were housed in the barn. As the establishment of the new pecking order amongst chickens can be quite a cruel and even dangerous process.
Luckily, we have found that our own bred chicks have always been accepted very well into the group. Although, who knows what goes on in the henhouse overnight, other than when we have had too many cockerels, there has never been any signs of significant injuries occuring overnight.
We let the chicks into the main chicken run area over the weekend, and distracted them all for a few minutes with their favourite treat which is bread. The chicks were right in there with the others for the bread and apart from the odd little peck now and again from the hens, they held their own. Tiger the cockerel is above all that anyway, he just stoops now and again to get the pieces that happen to land near him. Most of the time a cheeky hen scampers in and steals it, just before he gets it, and he seems to maintain a philosophical approach about it and accepts this.
The young chicks managed to get their fair share of the bread. They also pecked frantically at the fresh grass and then had a general wander around the run, staying mainly together most of the time. They didn’t wander anywhere that they shouldn’t over a period of about 2 hours which was very encouraging.
All went well then on the first day and they went back into their own barn to roost at the first sign of darkness, which is about 5 pm at the moment. We plan to repeat this daily over the next couple of weeks and then extend the time they are mingling with the adults, before housing them all together overnight in the next month or so.

John
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