Adding day olds to 4 week olds...

[Pghelp]

By the time your littles are 4-5 weeks old they may be able to hold their own with the big ones. Feathering is a good indicator. Do you have a dog crate or a way to partition the space so they can see and hear each other but not peck?

 

[CaptainPoulet]

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.

Thanks for the advice, I’m now on the fence between getting the week olds or finding a pair that are the same age as my current chicks.

 

[CaptainPoulet]

By the time your littles are 4-5 weeks old they may be able to hold their own with the big ones. Feathering is a good indicator. Do you have a dog crate or a way to partition the space so they can see and hear each other but not peck?

I can rig something up, yes.

 

[aart]

It can be done, carefully, with a good setup.
What kind of housing and heat do you have for them?
Pics would help here.

I had some days old that I merged with 4-6 weeks olds.
I split the brooder with a wire wall and separate heat for the tinies.
The bigs wanted into the tinies space, the tinies wanted into the bigs space.
I put the oldest chick in with the tinies, it only wanted at the feeder.
I let the 2 tinies in with the 8 older chicks and they merged right into the crowd.

 

[CaptainPoulet]

It can be done, carefully, with a good setup.
What kind of housing and heat do you have for them?
Pics would help here.

I had some days old that I merged with 4-6 weeks olds.
I split the brooder with a wire wall and separate heat for the tinies.
The bigs wanted into the tinies space, the tinies wanted into the bigs space.
I put the oldest chick in with the tinies, it only wanted at the feeder.
I let the 2 tinies in with the 8 older chicks and they merged right into the crowd.

Being a naive newbie, I bought a prefab coop that is both flimsy and small. I’m currently trying to design a coop incorporating this one. I’m in Ontario, and winters get COLD.

I can split the “run” area to keep the tinies on one side for now. I’m going to get one of those black heat things (see pic) for the coop once I move them outdoors anyways.

 

[aart]

I’m currently trying to design a coop incorporating this one.

If at all possible it would better to build a completely new coop adequate for your flock size(current and future) and climate....and save the tiny coop for isolation(more chicks/broody/hospital.

once I move them outdoors anyways.

So the older chicks are in the coop shown and the youngers are still inside or.....?

 

[CaptainPoulet]

If at all possible it would better to build a completely new coop adequate for your flock size(current and future) and climate....and save the tiny coop for isolation(more chicks/broody/hospital.


So the older chicks are in the coop shown and the youngers are still inside or.....?

The two 4 week old EEs are in the coop shown (still drops to single digits Celsius some days). The youngsters haven’t been brought home yet.

 

[CaptainPoulet]

The two 4 week old EEs are in the coop shown (still drops to single digits Celsius some days). The youngsters haven’t been brought home yet.

Also, our flock is capped at 4 hens due to city bylaw.

 

[gimmie birdies]

Last week I bought 4 chicks from a feed store. The stores chick shipment looked pretty bad. I bought the 4 because I really wanted those breeds. I gave them yolk water when they got home. I still lost 2. I had some chicks from the week before, 2 were shrimpier than the others. I combined one week olds with 2 week olds. It was nice to have that option.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

So I'm going against the grain here. I had an emergency baby (mom nested in a hay loft, new baby fell out while mama was still nesting). It's impossible to get there without equipment, so baby had to go somewhere for a few hours. He went into the brooder with 3 qeek old bantams. He did pretty well with them, honestly. Got bowled over a few times when they got excited and they didn't seem like fans, but he was safe until we got mama and the other eggs down and gave him back.