Adding day olds to 4 week olds...

[CaptainPoulet]

A month ago I bought 2 newly hatched Easter Eggers. Now they are 4 weeks old and I want to add in 2 newly hatched barnevelders. I believe the EEs are a pulley and a cockerel (will have to get rid of him if that’s the case). The barnevelders will both be pullets.

How do I add the babies to the toddlers?

 

[Rivergirl06]

A month ago I bought 2 newly hatched Easter Eggers. Now they are 4 weeks old and I want to add in 2 newly hatched barnevelders. I believe the EEs are a pulley and a cockerel (will have to get rid of him if that’s the case). The barnevelders will both be pullets.

How do I add the babies to the toddlers?

You don't, they will peck the new borns to death.

 

[CaptainPoulet]

You don't, they will peck the new borns to death.

Okay, so assuming I don’t want that - how long do I keep them apart?

 

[Sheepheart]

It can be dangerous to add younger chicks to older chicks. The young ones may get trampled and picked on by the older chicks.

The manager At a farm store I used to work at would mix chicks like this. Only organized by breed until they start feathering out. Pretty much every fifteen minutes some one would come up to me at the register to let me know there were dead chicks and some times that there were trampled chicks being eaten alive. (Sorry for the horror story)

 

[CaptainPoulet]

Okay, so the 2 new chicks will be 1 week old and my current will be 4 weeks. I can have them in separate “homes” for now, but at what point can they coexist?

 

[Aapomp831]

A month ago I bought 2 newly hatched Easter Eggers. Now they are 4 weeks old and I want to add in 2 newly hatched barnevelders. I believe the EEs are a pulley and a cockerel (will have to get rid of him if that’s the case). The barnevelders will both be pullets.

How do I add the babies to the toddlers?

Put up some chicken wire and create a see but can’t touch scenario... let them get used to each other for a few weeks.

 

[MountainWoman73]

I go by temperature and feathering. Once they're all feathered and outside they're fine to live together.

 

[Avettfan]

At 4 weeks old, one of our 4 chicks ended up to be a little cockerel so we had to take him back to the farm. We wanted another chick to replace the roo. The farm told us we’d be much better off getting a chick about the same age as the rest of our flock instead of day olds. We did that and haven’t had any issues. If we wanted day old chicks we’d have to set up another brooder and then integrate at a later time.

 

[CaptainPoulet]

Put up some chicken wire and create a see but can’t touch scenario... let them get used to each other for a few weeks.

Thanks for the positive plan!

 

[The Kooky Kiwi]

I personally would not risk merging 1 week olds with 3 week olds no. There is too big an age difference - the older chicks will have a significant advantage of size, energy and dominance and are quite likely to overpower and bully the younger smaller chicks.

I'd say that once all of the chicks are substantially feathered and the youngest of them is looking strong and active - then you can start doing supervised time together. There "will" be a certain amount of posturing and sorting out of the pecking order, even at that age, so you should let that happen and only step in if you see a chick being injured or unreasonably harassed.