[janeheritage]

Hello all.

I have 3 Cream Legbar chicks with a Light Sussex Hybrid broody at present. They are a week old today and all female.

Can you please give me the benefit of your experience about introducing them to the flock? I have 3 other birds (a Warren, a Bovans Nera and a Skyline) and they all get on well and are fairly calm. There is plenty of space in their house and run and they spend most of the day on free range in my back garden.

I was thinking of keeping the chicks separate until mum gets tired of them (I believe this is at about 5 weeks) and then seeing how they get on with the others. Is this too young?

Also, I am only planning to keep 1 chick and I will sell the other 2 (or give them away to my neighbour  ). Would you advise doing this before integrating them into the flock, at 5 weeks say, or later, at point of lay?

Many thanks!

[cathangirl]

Hello Jane,
I was going to ask, "How are the chicks and Ethel?"  Now I know.

Hope some one advises soon.  I don't know the answer.  I know orphans should be bigger before mixing, but with a Mum to look out for them may be different.

My two are still sitting well.  Goodness!  We are on Day 19 already.  Three weeks seemed such a long time at the beginning.

Still haven't put eggs under the third broody, my Nera Constance, as coop we had on freecycle needs patching up a bit.

cathangirl.

[janeheritage]

I was just thinking of PMming you to find out! Any day now!

Good luck with them, please take pictures... 

[joyfull]

most people on here would advise waiting until they are big enough to hold their own, but mine have been introduced behind a mesh fence so that they could see each other all the time. After a week the young ones were getting through the fence and all were walking around together. The little ones seem to have been placed in the same pecking order as their mums, so my banty chicks are joint 5th place and my marans at 1 week old are joint 1st with their mum and my bluebell (these two adults were always equal top hens). None of the other hens have chased or attacked them, in fact quite the opposite 

[Cabbie37]

This is what works for me (and I'm assuming the the Light Sussex was part of your flock to start with). I keep the mum and chicks in their own broody house and run for the first week. After that, I start letting them out into the garden where the rest of my birds run free during the day. They tend to keep themselves to themselves. This lets them begin to 'socialise' as a larger group - I help that with a handful of corn tossed down from time to time (though at the moment, some old Christmas cake from the bottom of the freezer seems high on the list of favourites). I just keep going like this, letting mum and chicks out more and more. After 5 weeks or so, Mum decides herself when to go back to the main house and takes the chicks with her. This normally takes a night or so to settle down - the first attempt often ends in a little 'argy-bargy' and mum and chicks being thrown out by a more dominant hen, but she'll persevere.... Basically, I don't interfere much and let nature take its course - Mum knows best!!

Hope that helps..

[janeheritage]

That sounds great, Cabbie. I'll give it a try in about another week I think - they are such little babies at the moment but growing like weeds.

My biggest worry is my Springer Spaniel Molly. She is obsessed by the babies and "guards" their pen all day. Sounds sweet until you realise that she also "guards" her chews and pigs' ears  :blink:. She is good now with the adult chooks but no babies and dogs in the garden at the same time for now!!!