please help!

[SheenaMills]

is it okay to put my 4 week old chicks in the coop with my 10 week old chicks?

 

[Shanny050]

I just integrated my girls fully today. Older girls are 4wks and younger are 2wks. They've been in the same coop for a week separated by chick wire so they could get used to each other. Took down the wire today with no problems. A couple of pecks but nothing serious.

 

[Peeps61]

4 weeks to 10 weeks is a pretty big spread. I'd put them in but keep them safely separated until they get used to each other. The bigger chicks will terrorize the smaller chicks - I have one in the house now that was beat up pretty badly - and this was after I watched them for a while to make sure all was well. She has recovered and is doing fine, but I would not add them cold turkey without letting them adjust first.

My chicks in the chicken tractor visit with my older hens through the wire on the run. They are curious about each other, but safely separate.

 

[SheenaMills]

awesome. thank you guys !

 

[Farmgirl0422]

We have had to introduce chicks before and we ussually put the chicks in a dog kennel with a heat lamp and you can also open the door and put a little chicken wire around the kennel so they have a little run. We do this for about a week then we peel back the chicken wire.
Good luck!

 

[PapaChaz]

no I wouldn't put 4 week olds in with 10 week olds without a see through protective barrier of some kind.

when I built my coop, I incorporated my brooder/quarantine cage to have access to one pop door, and made a temp fence to divide off part of the run just for this type circumstance.



I bought a roll of plastic garden fence for less than $8, rigged up some pvc 'legs' and divided off part of my run so the smaller ones could go out but be safe from the bigger ones who, as mentioned above, tried to 'terrorize' them. Left if up for almost two weeks, then discovered a spot the little ones could get out. They were all mingled together in the run. Bigger ones were MOSTLY behaving, LOL. I took it out after watching them for a couple of days and seeing they were adapting.

 

[SheenaMills]

okay so should I start making the barrier? or are they too young to be outside? ( they are bantams so look way smaller to me than my others did when I put them out lol )

 

[Shanny050]

okay so should I start making the barrier? or are they too young to be outside? ( they are bantams so look way smaller to me than my others did when I put them out lol )

I don't know about putting them outside, but I just put chick wire inside the coop to segregate it. They had access to their own pop door (I have two in the coop) but at 2 weeks they hadn't gone outside yet. Looks like @PapaChaz has a pretty good outdoor setup if their ready for outside.

 

[SheenaMills]

thanks for all the advice! we've got the room addition! my boyfriend was hard at work today.. there's a chicken wire barrier in the inside separating the bigger chickens & the babies.