first, thanks for the answer to my question in march. my brother told me of TBN. through it, i found this site. seems the older i get, the more questions i have. we have 16 chickens & 2 roosters. various breeds & crossbreeds. we bought 20 chicks. i have them in the henhouse, but separate from the grown chickens. question: at what age can i turn them out into the " general population "? [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]
We usually wait until the new chickens are at least the same size as the others. Then we introduce them into the coop at night, this way the chickens wake up with them and they usually do not know that new chickens have come into the coop. Of course, there will be some fighting while they establish the pecking order, just watch them the first two days for anyone getting too much of a beating. If someone is getting picked on, we find the chicken doing the beating, and remove her from the coop for a day. This changes the pecking order, which usually distracts the chickens from the newbies...
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