Adding Chick to the Brooder

[Joslyn]

I picked up 4 chicks on Saturday from our local feed store. Now that I'm home and thinking about it I know I would like to add 3 or 4 more. Can I put the new little ones in the brooder with the 4 I already have or do I need to set up another brooder?

 

[Percheron chick]

They will be fine. You can easily mix chicks up to about 2 weeks spread in age.

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome! If the chicks are from the same place and nearly the same age it should be fine. Make sure that you have plenty of space, and enough space in the feeder and waterer, so there's no stress there. I hope that you're using a red heat lamp too. Mary

 

[Joslyn]

Thank you! Now I have to decide if going to add a few more of the same breed or if I want to add some variety. All these tough decisions.

 

[azygous]

The younger chicks are the more accepting they are of stranger newbies. You can get away with adding chicks as long as the prior ones are under two weeks old and the new ones are no older than two weeks.

So it depends both on ages and age spread. Try to do it before any of them are older than two weeks.

 

[Joslyn]

Thanks everyone! I picked up 3 more chicks last night and added them to the brooder. I'm glad I didn't wait since one of my original chicks, Miss Priss, has already decided that she's in charge and spent the first few hours letting the new comers know it. The poor things were jumped on and pecked at so I spent a lot of time just monitoring. Everyone is settled in this morning and no one is being bullied.

 

[emalin]

I have a very similar question. I hatched four Dominiques, who are now exactly one week old. I found a local, single Creme Legbar that we really want. It is a few days older. Is it ok to add a single chick, or should we get a few? My 4 yo daughter's only chicken-related requests are blue eggs and a white chicken. This is a white sport legbar, so perfect. (We're running out of coop space.) Thanks for any advice.

 

[manychitlens]

I have a very similar question. I hatched four Dominiques, who are now exactly one week old. I found a local, single Creme Legbar that we really want. It is a few days older. Is it ok to add a single chick, or should we get a few? My 4 yo daughter's only chicken-related requests are blue eggs and a white chicken. This is a white sport legbar, so perfect. (We're running out of coop space.) Thanks for any advice. 

I don't know what a white sport legbar is, but I do have a cream legbar chick. She is MUCH smaller than my other chicks, so just something to be aware of. I would definitely add her if you want her, but because you are only adding 1 chick to a group of others, I might remove everyone and rearrange the brooder, then put the legbar in, then add the others one at a time. I'm not saying keep them out for a long time or anything, just as long as it takes to rearrange things, but it might confuse them enough that it won't be a big deal at all. All of that might not be necessary but I did something similar at that age range just to be safe and it worked fine.