Today on the farm, we integrated the new chicks into the flock. We currently have 25 grown laying hens and 7 young chicks. The chicks have been staying in a make-shift brooder in our basement for the last several weeks. 'Brooder' is just a fancy term for a chick house. They need warmth when they are young, in nature they would be under the loving wing of a mother hen, In our basement, they are under the loving warmth of a heat lamp. Of course they need fresh food and water, but past those three things, you can use pretty much any means to keep them confined. We have used rubbermaid tubs, boxes, and recently a metal hexagon dog run I picked up at a garage sale. With the weather being so lovely this spring (sarcasm) we have had to keep them inside longer than we normally would have. But today was sunny and 50 (here in Michigan we call that t-shirt weather!). So we decided it was as good a time as ever to introduce the girls!! Chickens have a pecking order within their flock, so whenever you introduce new girls into the flock there is a disrupt in the chain of hierarchy and some fighting tends to ensue. When the new girls are much smaller than the originals, as you can imagine, this can become quite detrimental. The last two times we extended the brood, we let them meet each other behind a screen or wall of chicken wire. After a few hours, if they seem ready, we remove the wall. This seems to work extremely well and drastically cut down on the injury/bullying rate, Todays integration went very smoothly and they new girls are actually in the big coop already! We will see how their first night goes, but at dusk they were all tucked in tight. :)
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