7weeks and 3 weeks old

[hobbz]

should I wait till the 3 week olds are closer to size to let them roam together or let them run together now? I let the 3 week olds out with the older ones for about 10 minutes today and it seemed like the old ones were bullying the young ones and pecking at them real hard. For almost a week now, the young ones have been in a chicken wire cage inside the big guys coop. They are less than half the size of the older ones so I am afraid if they keep picking like that they will hurt/kill the young ones.

If I should wait, how long, 2 more weeks I would think would make them close to the same size.

 

[ChickBond 007]

I would put them in an area with 'windows' or hardware cloth/chicken wire between them. Leave them a week or so to get used to seeing one another, them introduce with supervision.

 

[hobbz]

they are in an area just seperated by chicken wire and have been for about a week

 

[sonew123]

They will bully them. I wish I could do that because Im in the same boat but if you make a make shift pen with a fence wall?? They can see eachother but can't hurt eachother. You should do this for a few weeks so they get used to eachother. I have mine like that and I have them sharing food and water in the middle. They SEEM ok seperated but the one time I let them mix-all heck broke loose-and I had to jump in and save the little ones-now the little ones are as big as the others and I am trying it again when they go into their new coop together..fingers crossed!!!

 

[cmom]

I agree with the other posts. I would wait until they are closer in size before putting them together. You are right the older ones can really hurt and possibly kill the younger ones.

 

[chickens3]

They will be fine.

 

[marcym]

I had my brooder in the coop. The big birds (7 week BO's) would sit on top of the screen as if to say hi to the 1 week old red stars. I put them together last week at 10 weeks and 4 weeks without a problem. Maybe I just got lucky, but I like to think it's because they had time to get used to each other before hand.

 

[sherrydeanne]

It partially depends on numbers, how many of each?

I have 5 9ish-weekers in with 5 5-weekers and everyone is fine. I wouldn't do it any younger than 4 or 5 weeks though.