Mixing different ages of chicks

[jbly2014]

I have 5 chicks that are a week or two old. Thursday I'm getting 6-8 more from Tsc. They'll be a few days old.

I have the older chicks in the house in a baby pool but I can't keep them in there even with cardboard around it. I have a large 4' x 8' brooder in the garage but I was waiting to move them until I get the new chicks. Do you think that's a good idea? I thought maybe if it was new to everyone they would get along better. Can I go ahead and move the older ones now or should I wait?

 

[chicmom]

That's a great idea. But if the older chicks are escaping and you just can't take it anymore, move them now. Generally you can put chicks of different ages, up to 3 weeks old without any trouble.

 

[brokenhobble]

I mix up to almost 3 weeks or so In age difference, I have a brooder and 2 incubating that I add eggs to so my rotation I'm hatching eggs almost weekly and I mix them after they hatch and dry just keep puttin them I'm the brooder
Where I ran into the most trouble was mixing something other than chickens. They picked on the ducks terribly and the turkeys were fine for awhile but grew to fast and were ok with who they grew up with but when they got big new baby chicks were easy targets for the turkey's so j had to pull out the Turks

 

[luckyclucky]

I don't have any advice to give you. However I can tell you that I did about the same thing. I purchased 6 pullets from TSC that were 4 days old when I bought them then went back 5 days later and bought 2 black sex links.

At first I put them in seperate boxes (with seperate food and water) just to acclimate them to my house. Then when I felt they were comfortable I moved them into the big box with the 6 others for a few hours. I also put in their food and water with them in case the others didn't want the new girls in their food/water. The older girls did a little pecking and chasing but nothing to draw blood or anything I thought was unacceptable. Except once one of them pecked at the new girls' eye. I just kind of shooed her away. Then I took them out and put them in the small box over night. The next day I tried it again and all was well. I felt comfortable leaving them in there for a few hours unattended. When I returned they all seemed to be getting along without any issues. They're all eating and drinking out of each other's food/water. I just took out 1 of each and we'll see how we do with that.

I was so nervous adding them even though they were pretty close in age. It's my first time with chickens and I don't really know what's acceptable. Hope this helps. Best of luck.