combining chicks

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gardengirl4288

gardengirl4288

In the Brooder
5 Years
Apr 11, 2014
84
5
33
I currently have 10 chicks that are coming up on 2 weeks old this weekend. They are 3 Buff Orps, 2 Buff Rocks, 3 Black Australorps and 2 partridge rocks. I want to get a couple easter eggers from my local feed store and they would be a few days old. My concern is that there will only be 2-3 of the new babes in with 10 that are roughly twice their size. Has anyone experienced trouble or success with this? The brooder has plenty of space for everyone and they seem to be pretty nice to each other so I would hate to greatly disrupt our happy girls with change but I know the next two weeks they will have the easiest time allowing others into their little flock

Thanks!
 
I've mixed (4) day-old chicks with (4) two-week chicks with no issues. They seemed glad of the extra company. A 1:1 ratio sounds better than having the wee babes outnumbered 5:1 but since you have plenty of space and no aggression problems, I would try it and just keep a close watch on them the first couple days. Have a backup plan just in case you need to separate them.
 
We also combine chicks that are 2 weeks apart since our hatches are staggered like that. Once the youngest chicks are one week old, we put them in with the three week olds, and don't have any issues.
 
The new chicks made an ideal transition in with the older girls. One of the new ones was very outgoing eating and drinking immediately so she drew curiosity from the older girls. One of the buff rocks pecked at it and the brave little EE squawked and pecked at her 3 times back. They then stared at each other for a few seconds and continued on with what they were previously doing. The other two filled their little bellies and didn't rock the boat much. I also added a turned over box for the little ones to hide in and a stick roost and some twigs for distractions. All in all it went very well!
 
Nearly a week later and they are all the best of friends! We lost power yesterday which really concerned me since the temps can be pretty low and the older chicks are not quite 3 weeks and the new ones only about a week. Fortunately with a little extra bedding and snuggling they seem to be just fine! Each of my BOs have a little chickie snuggled right under their wing! Too cute :)
 

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