# Integration issues



## JPoff (Jun 1, 2015)

I have a flock of 11 hens and 1 rooster, various ages. We recently added 8 new babies. We did the slow integration where they had a grow out pen with a shared fence, their own food/water. They were in the run as the big birds but had their own run, so everyone would get to know each other. Then we opened their run into the large one for supervised free ranging. They would go back to their coop at night. This lasted about a month. Then the big integration. They were 16 weeks old. We finally built a coop big enough for them all. At night The babies were last in, sometimes slept in the nesting boxes, pecking issues here and there but they would all go in. After 2 weeks, they discovered a tree next to the coop, and now 6 of the babies are roosting in this tree! I can't get them to stop. They get kicked off the roosts in the coop, and just go in the tree. I take them out of the tree and put them in the coop on the roosts. They are predator bate and I don't want to leave them there. 

Did I integrate too early? Should I put them back in their grow out pen?

I read that I should lock them all in the coop together so the babies know it's home, that won't work. Our coop is not a barn. They have 2000 sq ft run while we are at work. Then they free range. They all get along except for bedtime. 

Help.....
Jen


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Try adding another roost. Other than that, don't let them free range after you get home. Being forced to stay in the run should reset them wanting to roost in the tree. 

If you can do it, not easy but I did it with my Guineas, let the adults out to free range and make the young birds stay in the run. After a few days of not being out with the others the recalcitrant guinea was more than willing to go in at night.


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