The Stress Free Way to Integrate New Members into Your Flock
Coming home from the feed store with a little cardboard box full of adorable fuzzy peepers is the best feeling! Oh the excitement and joy that comes with spring time and adding new feathered friends to the gang! However, those happy feelings are quickly turned into stress a couple months later when your chicks are entering into adulthood and ready to join the flock. Will the other hens accept them? Will there be pecking, bullying and blood shed? If I sneak them in the coop at night will the other girls notice in the morning? (Yes they will!)
Integration can be dangerous to the little ones and downright stressful for everyone involved (including us). But it doesn’t have to be! I have a sure proof plan to integrate your new members to your flock and I can guarantee you that not a single peck, fight or drop of blood will be shed. Here’s how I do it….
**I want to start by acknowledging that everyones setup is slightly different and this is what works for me. The method I recommend can be executed in lots of different ways and can work with any type of set up. You might just need to be a little creative.**
Notice I have multiple coops? This is the key to the secret! The coop on the far left is for the adult hens, the coop in the middle is for the broody moms who will hatch a clutch of eggs and need a safe and quiet maternity ward, and the coop at the end is for the newbies to integrate into the flock.
When they come home from the feed store they are still too small to be outside so they are kept indoors with a heat lamp until around two weeks old when they can be put outside (but still with their heat lamp), I put the chicks in a brooder box (a small inclosed coop or cage that keeps them safe and allows for a heat lamp) outside the chicken yard where it’s close enough for the hens to hear their cute little peeps and get use to their sounds for about 3 or 4 weeks depending on the weather.
When the chicks turn 6 weeks old and no longer need a heat lamp they can enter the chicken yard. This is a big moment for the flock! This is when having a secondary coop becomes invaluable. I call this the “You Can Look But Can’t Touch” method.
I take the now juvenile chickens and place them in their own coop in the chicken yard. The hens have already gotten use to their peeps and squawks so normally this doesn’t even draw a crowd. I hang out in the yard for a while to be sure everyone seems un-phased and the newbies aren’t stressed. Eventually you’ll get a couple hens swinging by for an unclose look and then they’ll slowly walk away and continue on with their day.
Daphne checking out Cookie, one of the newest additions
After about a week or two you can open the door to the juveniles coop and let them free range with the others and no one will notice a thing! It will be like they’ve been there all along and the flock will go about their day together- business as usual!
And you’re done! Time to pour yourself a glass of wine or cup of coffee and sit out with your new flock for a bit.
If you’re unable to add a second coop this method can be used in other ways too. Again, everyone's set up is different but it’s the same idea of “look without touching”. One alternative is to simply move their brooder box into the chicken yard (if they haven’t outgrown it yet or you don’t have new chicks on their way that will need it). Another option is a small metal dog cage inside the chicken yard or run during the day. Be sure they have food, water, shade and protection from predators.
It’s always a family affair!
In the example shown I have predator tape tied to the cage as well as my livestock guardian dog with them. All they need now is a towel or umbrella for shade and they’re good to go for the day! You will however have to move them back to their brooder box at night to keep them safe from the nightly predators. Over a week or two the hens will get use to them in their run and you can let them out to free range together, If all seems well they can start sleeping in the coop with the others and no one will peck with protest.
If you don’t have a dog cage at home Amazon has a ton of great and cheap brooders you can order!
Growing your flock should be a fun and joyful experience so I hope you find this method to be useful and a way to eliminate the stress of bringing in new feathered friends!