The big baby chicks are fully integrated with the adult flock now in fact the young birds prefer the older birds layer pells. meanwhile the layers are eating the chick grower from the younger birds area. Time to switch to all flock! There are a few different names for it, Multi Flock, All Flock, probably a couple others depending on brand but the idea is that all your birds of all ages can eat this one food. All Flock usually comes in a crumble or a pellet. I can choose either since my big baby chicks are old enough for pellets and my new brooder babies indoors will stay on their own starter food for now. This will simplify feeding for all the outdoor birds. The one thing to remember is to put down calcium of some sort for the layers. they will take is as needed and the chicks should leave it alone. Calcium can be in the form of dried and ground up eggshells (I bake ours and then put them through the ninja blender) or oyster shells crumbled u[. You can usually find a big bag of the oyster shell crumbles at feed store. We will use a combination of dried crumbled eggshells and oyster shells.
Big baby chicks mixing with older birds.
As for roosting, so far the big baby chicks are returning to their coop within the main coop for the night. I leave the door open and it does have its own sticks for roosting bars. In my experience the younger birds do this for a few days to a week and then decide to start sleeping with the older birds.
We may be transitioning young birds with older birds but the weather sure isn't transitioning very well from winter to spring. It's still cold! It's warm in the covered run though, I';m glad that i didn't remove the plastic from the sides yet. The birds enjoy dustbathing and sunbathing in there, it';s much warmer than the outdoor temperatures even with the door open to their fenced yard.
Dust bathing is warmer in the covered run!
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