I can't believe I did this but the chicks needed to be out of the house. My Light Brahmas 3 1/2 weeks stayed in the coop with the 9 1/2 week Bard Rocks and 7 1/2 week Buff Orps, and they survived. I watched them throughout the day seeing how they were treated by the others but they would just peck the head but not causing blood or chasing them. The little guys would just run and gather with each other. I would be there and try to show to leave the Light Brahmas alone. It looks like the big ones just kept the food area to themselves because this morning I went out to let out the chickens and the babies were all over the food. One good thing is that the big chickens have their place when the sun goes down and sleep until morning. The little ones are not used to that yet. I'm so glad they can get along, well, they aren't all huggy snuggly but they can stay together.
I've got a pen with varied ages as well, and I recently noticed that 3 young ones were being kept away from the feeder. So, I stole 2 large, heavy dog food crocks from my dogs, filled them up, and I now have 3 feeders in the pen. All is good....for now!
The younger ones getting blocked from the feeders has always been our biggest problem, and sometimes it's hard to tell it's been happening until you have a little one half falling over from hunger. With 20 chicks of varying ages, I have 3 feeders spread way out in the run, and this seems to take care of it.
I will definitely have that taken care of today. That was so sad to see them starving like that. But I'm glad I didn't see any blood from pecking. Although the big girls probably slept most of the night.
