I have 19 chicks in my brooder at the moment. I am going to have to separate them pretty soon, as it is getting to look like wall-to-wall chicks in there as they grow. Is there any 'better' way to separate them in order to facilitate re-introducing them all in a few weeks? Suspected boys in one girls in the other? By breed? or just random? The other idea I had is that I am planning on keeping approx 8 of the hens for myself and giving the rest of the chicks away. Maybe I should separate out the ones I THINK are hens that I want to keep in one group and keep the others for the other brooder? Am I just over analyzing this too much?? I should add they are 2 weeks old now, so gender is STARTING to be more apparent, but it's still a guess at this point.
I think I would separate them based on the ones you're planning on keeping. This way, they will have been together the entire time and avoid any re-introductions later.
They are still really young. I seperated mine into two plastic brooders. Then reintroduced them all together in the grow out pen. They did fine no problems at all. I think you start having problems when they get older.
I sorted out the chicks today at brooder cleanout time. I've got 9 in one and 10 in the other. We sorted based on suspected gender, since that's how I will determine who will stay and who will need a new home. We looked at comb size and color of legs and feathers in the Barred rocks and looked a comb size and tail length in the Orps. I'm pretty confident about a few of them, and there were a few that we really were guessing so we put them in the roo pen to even out the numbers. They are just now 2.5 weeks old, so it's still more or less educated guessing, but we'll see. I'm going to keep the girls - either for my own flock or for a friend of mine. I'm hoping to keep ONE roo - maybe one of the BOs but not sure on that yet - I can't decide whether it's worth irritating the neighbors or not. The other roos will have to go... anyone interested in a Barred Rock or Buff Orp roo? I'm near Charlotte NC. Once they get a couple weeks older and I'm more sure on gender I'll post them in the Free ad section...
ya don't have to wait a few weeks i can tell ya now how to tell males from females. males have a yellow spot on the back of their head females don't. on the front of the legs females have like a black shadow males don't. you should be able to tell sex on all of them now going by those features unless they are cross breeds. i also seperate mine by keeps and no keeps. it makes it so they stay raised together those you will be keeping insteed of changer their brooder mates to much so they fight when older don't know who is who. silkie