I'm thinking of adding a couple of 6 day old Salmon Faverolles to my 7 Cochin chicks that are almost 2 weeks old. Will they be ok or should I separate them? I decided I want to get a couple chickens that will be better layers since I've been hearing how bad Cochins are at laying eggs
I have added chicks together that were 2 1/2 wks apart in age. I have a 5' x 2 1/2' brooder so lots of room. The day old chicks kept to them selves and stayed under the heat lamp for the first few days, then they intigrated and all slept together with no problems.
I found that up to 2 1/2 weeks was fine. Any more than that and the younger ones would get stepped on a lot. I don't think there would be any problem with the younger birds being 6 days old.
I just added some 1-3 day olds to my almost 2 week olds and they acted almost like they had known each other forever. I couldn't believe my 2 week olds were ever really that small!
I mix my chicks in age alot from few days to 4 weeks, and then 4 weeks to 10 weeks. The older chicks teach the younger ones to eat and drink. But I also have just silkies so mine are small
You can try but be prepared to care for the groups separately in case there is an unfriendly welcome. There was a post about this very thing recently and the older chicks actually killed the younger ones I mixed ages with a 3-week variance from youngest to eldest and it worked out just fine in a big brooder with a couple of hiding places. BUT, I wasn't tossing the little chicks in with an established group of older chicks. Everyone was new to the brooder all at once and that makes a difference.
My Salmon Faverolle chicks ended up being about half the size of my Cochin chicks so I did divide the brooder and actually moved the Cochins to the coop yesterday with a heat bulb. The Faverolles are a little weak and one of them has a pecking injury to its rear end so I'm going to keep them seperated for a little while at least. I ended up moving one of my really timid Black Cochin chicks in with them and watched them for a while to see how they did. They instantly thought she was mom! It's so cute to see them follow her around and try to get underneath her when I reach my hand in the box. She shows them where food and water is and they actually sometimes startle her even though she's twice as big as she is! I just love her. She's definitely going to stay as part of the main flock. The Faverolles are also very quiet little chicks and I have a feeling I'll end up keeping them all too....Gah! Chicken math is starting to kick in!
