Can my chicks get along

NatashaRodriguez

Chirping
Jun 22, 2017
61
30
71
Puerto Rico
So I have two chicks that are almost two months old. My neighborhood chicken had babies and one night she got taken away and I rescue her chicks. They look like their a couple of weeks old. I try to put them with my older chicks but they peck them sometimes. It scares me that my older chicks might kill the little ones can that happen?
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Those little chicks look to be ten-twelve days old at most. I would let them get a little bigger before integrating them with the older chicks, so they can defend themselves but it’s likeky they’ll be at the bottom of the pecking order anyway. Just popping them in there will cause nothing but issues.
 
It’s also two versus, I count seven? I have had good luck integrating chicks when they outnumber their elders. Each baby only garners so much of the negative attention from the older birds. They also have one another to socialize with and don’t have to keep approaching the older birds for company. I’d continue with supervised integration. One day, probably very soon, you’ll just feel comfortable leaving them together. You’ll see the older chicks ignore opportunities to pick on the smaller ones, they’ll wind up eating alongside one another, perching together, fleeing from “danger” together, and it will click. Younger is definitely easier. I just did 16 chicks at two weeks with 12 chicks a month older. It only took a week of contact in separate quarters and a few days of supervised time, and I was probably overly cautious.
 
Oh, and now? At five weeks, I’m still collecting my youngest set at night during this frigid weather. They don’t come willingly. Where do they hide, especially when it gets down to the last one or two? They run to the older chicks and try to blend in. Their friends are all too happy to hide them!
 

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