Bought chicks with hatched chicks

Mvan42

Crowing
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I am planning on hatching some chicks starting sometime this next week. And my sone wants a few other breeds we plan on buying from tractor supply.

If I wait to buy the TS chicks until the ones I hatch are hatching or a day old, will it be ok to mix the two groups together in the brooder. I am thinking they will be fine being they are the same age. I wanted to ask to make sure there isn’t anything I should be concerned about by doing this.
 
Go for it, you have a great plan. I cannot guarantee that it will work but it almost always does. It's just that with living animals you don't get guarantees when it comes to behaviors.

The closer they are to the same age the better your chances. I've put incubator-hatched chicks with broody-hatched chicks for her to raise. It works. I don't know why it would be different with mixing incubator and TSC chicks in a brooder. I actually did that once when I had a horrible incubator hatch. I got seven chicks at a feed store to put in the brooder with eight incubator chicks the day I took them out of the incubator. I almost forgot about that.

The only reason I'm hesitant has nothing to do with you mixing TSC chicks and incubator chicks you hatched. It is possible to get a brute. One time I hatched several chicks under a broody hen. The chicks were hatched together, no mixing at all. At two weeks of age one chick turned serial killer. He killed a hatch mate and was on the way to killing another when I stopped him. This was with a broody hen.

The greater the age difference the more likely the brute in some chicks is to come out. Some people on here say they often mix chicks in a brooder with one or even two weeks age difference and don't have problems. Others have dead chicks when they try too much age difference. But you don't need any age difference to have issues.

Don't let me put you off, I think it is a great plan. As long as you minimize age difference it should work well. But like anything else, observe what happens, just in case.
 
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