Can you mix day old chicks with 4-week old chicks in same brooder?

[davemonkey]

Just like the title says...will this lead to disaster, or are 4-wk-olds young enough not to terrorize day-olds? The reason I ask is that my chicks that hatch in a few days will be 4 weeks old when I will coincidentally have an opportunity to purchase some day-olds. Good idea, or should I skip on it?

 

[Granny Hatchet]

i bought one of those old window slider screens and divided the brooder and put the older ones on the far side of the heat but make sure the babies have enough room to get away from the heat too

 

[davemonkey]

Ooh...that's a good idea. Yeah, it's a 8x4' brooder, and I can put the heat lamp anywhere in it.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

that will work, where theres a will theres a way

 

[davemonkey]

To divide it, I'm going to go lengthways since I have some 8' 1x3 boards. I can attach them on top of one another for about an 8" tall wall or more. That way, everyone has equal access to the front and back of the brooder, so they can run away from the kids when they go and try to play with them. It will make 2 halves, each 8' x 2'. It'll be perfect.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

i would go taller than 8 in. those little buggers dont take long to jump and or fly over

 

[LTygress]

Theoretically, you could put them together. Just make sure that the day-olds are actually at least a full day old, and they are standing without wobbling, awake and curious to check out surroundings, etc. In a brooder that big (and that's pretty big), the little ones will be able to get away from the bigger ones easily. There will be pecking, but mostly it will just be a "what are you?" type of peck. It won't be aggression just yet.

I actually just added a "new" hatch to a brooder yesterday, and it already had a chick that turned four weeks old today. There was a little bit of checking each other out, but otherwise they were fine.

Although the brooder ALSO contains many other chicks, and almost none of which share the same hatch date with each other. So he's probably used to little ones being introduced all the time, and just became familiar with what they are already. But pretty much all of them - including the one I just added - were too interested in being fed again to care about the newest member. And NOT fighting over food is probably the most important part of successfully acclimating them to each other.




BUT... each and every chicken is different, so I would definitely be prepared to sit there for a good 20 minutes or so, and see how they interact.

 

[davemonkey]

Thanks a bunch for the advice and feedback. I have good feelings about his now.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

 

[davemonkey]

Just wanted to update: we decided to NOT get new chicks once these new ones are 4 weeks...mainly because we don't have the room for them once they get older...even in our freezer. So, we're going to wait and see how our mix breeds do as far as laying and climate tolerance here.

HOWEVER, we did happen to have a 4 week old pullet in the brooder that our hatchlings went into. At first she didn't like it one bit and only wanted out. She did peck a couple times, mainly at their feet of all things. We gave her a day in the yard away from the chicks, and then put her back in in the evening. By the next morning she seemed indifferent, and is now even tolerating a couple of them that have "adopted" her as their mamma. She has not pecked at any since the first afternoon. Hurray!!

Here's a pic (I have one of them together...but it's on my home computer so it'll have to be later) :