[Kiwi]

Maude and her babies are in their own house and run within the big run.  (about 15m x 5m times 2 - it's a big L shape ) Obviously not now! But at what age should I put them together in the big run, and should I let Maude out sooner or all of them together? When she starts to get fed up of them will that be obvious and would that be a good time to let her leave her babies and join the other three big chooks?

[Vember]

Hi Kiwi

I think my Buff Orps were 8 weeks old when I put them back in with the other birds :?
Mum looked after them and made sure they were ok but they continued to go back to their broody house at night (with mum).
It was a good month after before she started taking them in the coop

Sarah

[karlooben]

i have 8 week old marans and i am debating wether to put them in with my big girls this wekend  , they have doubled in size in the few weeks that i have had them but they stil seem really flighty and i am worried they wont get on with the big girls  in the house at night unless i put them into their own little house that they use now and let them into big run during the day .
i have been told its better to wait until they are 3 months old

[Vember]

In my opinion if they haven't got a mummy then it might be best to wait a bit longer
But you know your hen's best Karlooben

Sarah

[karlooben]

your rite there sarah i do know them well, when i let the new girls in with the big girls i did get a few fights but now they all get on really well but they babies are smaller and i would be worried they wil get to picked on.

if i leave them then i will look at placing them all together at Christmas as i will have nearly 2 weeks of work to keep an eye on them.

[Kiwi]

ours have their mummy with them, also our original 4 were brought up together from the same batch and really there's been no squabbling and I can't tell the pecking order at all. I think I'll wait till they look bigish! We have cats, that can't get in, but if they really wanted to I'm sure they could really!

It'll be interesting, I sort of can't wait to get them all together - but definitely don't want to do it too soon thanks x