Solitary chicken - need advice

[jeshen]

I have 3 8-week-old pekin chicks (not siblings) who are in an eglu with run on the lawn. The garden is completely enclosed and safe. I'm wondering whether they are old enough to FR? Will they find their way back? Might they be more likely to fly, being small and light?

My 5 adult pekins are free-ranging in a separated area of the garden. They can see the chicks, but can't access them, even if I let the chicks out.

Maybe they're a bit young to FR on their own?

[mullethunter]

Mine FR'd from the time I got them at 10 weeks. They were supervised though and did (and still do) fly

[miller30]

Hi I have about 60 plus pekins lol never had a problem with any off them flying or not finding their way back to their coop mine freerange from about 8-10 weeks if ive reared them or day olds if broody reared with their mums you just need to make sure you have no rats,crows or cats and the dreaded fox doesn't matter how much you think you are fox proof he will get them if hes around ive had terrible trouble this year and its always in the day leanne

[mullethunter]

The reason mine are supervised is that there are crows, magpies and seagulls around. I think a seagull might take one even now when they're almost full sized

[sjp]

when you FR them with the rest of your flock let the youngsters out first for a few minutes so they can get to their safe area and also the FR area is then theirs in the minds of the rest of the flock it's tip I read somewhere and a practice I follow at the moment I let out the broody and chicks then the growers then the low ranking cockerel and his girls then Fred the boss and his girls or the Boris old boss and his girls depending on who's day it is to FR

[jeshen]

Thanks all - very helpful. I think I'll let them out for a bit this afternoon while I'm out there with them. It will be quite good, as you point out sjp, as Mr Darcy and the big girls will see them and get used to the fact that it's the chicks' own area. When I let them all FR together in the whole garden from October, hopefully introductions might be a bit easier. Good point re crows etc. We do have rooks and the like round here, so I won't leave the little'uns on their own. They're all quite timid and I don't think they'll venture far!

[sjp]

personally I'd let them FR together in 2 or 3 weeks time (assuming that your flock is nice natured) that way the youngsters will be young enough not to be a threat but old enough to get out of the way and more important old enough to learn who to avoid

I'm lucky in that I broody raise my chicks so they get to FR from a few days old so by the time mom leaves them they are used to FR and have been going off on their own for a couple of weeks any way

[jeshen]

Lavinia, Gloria and Hilda enjoyed their first excursion into the outside world this afternoon! Got some amusing video of the big girls and Mr D eyeballing them through the mesh! No problems with flying or returning to the run.

I'd love to FR them altogether in a couple of weeks sjp but OH is quite garden-proud and we made a pact that in the summer the big girls could FR in half the garden and we'd keep the other half full of colour. We're letting them FR in whole garden from October to March as they can't do much damage then. I've managed to negotiate the little ones having occasional outings in the nice half of the garden as I'm hoping they won't get up to much!!