young hen's
- Thread starter gazeds
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It's best to wait until at least 18-20 weeks if you can, because any less than this and they will lack the confidence to stand up for themselves and can often be bullied by the older ones. Also, its good to keep them separate and feed growers pellets as long as possible, ideally until they are actually starting to lay, which may not be until 22-28 weeks, because until they have to make eggshell every day, the extra calcium in layers pellets isn't good for them. If you wait until 18-19 weeks, you can then worm them for the first time, and possibly do the rest of the flock at the same time, so they are all in the best of health and thereafter will need worming all together a few months later.
chrismahon
Well-known member
I echo Marigold's post to the letter Gazeds.
Stapfam
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Luckily I have a mobile quarantine run that I can put alongside the main run. I introduced an Adult bird into my adult birds and she was picked on continually. I put her in the Quarantine run for two weeks with one of my other birds and she was accepted straight away when I put them all in together.
Last time I had some youngsters I divided my run in half with netting (had to be floor to ceiling as my 5-week-old Cream Legbar kept flying over the top!) and put a temporary covered box for them as a 'coop'. I moved them out to a small grass run during the day so they got very used to being picked up and handled twice a day, and after 3 months alongside the 'big girls' the eventual integration went very smoothly. This might only be possible for small numbers, but I suppose if you had more, they wold probably have their own space anyway. It was more time-consuming than having them all in together earlier on, but it did give them time to mature and bond with each other, and relationships in the flock now they are all adult have been really good. There is still a clear preference for the older two to hang out together, and the younger two likewise, but no fighting or pecking or problems if I need to split the pairs for any reason.
