Hi Everyone! Ok, here's the situation... I have one sultan hen who is in the coop by herself. Also in the coop is my brooder box with 13 2-3 week old chicks in it. In a "mini" brooder I have 2 1-week-old silkie chicks. On June 2nd I am getting 25 (hopefully all alive!) day olds. (11 of the 13 older chicks are from my first order... of which 14 were DOA!!!! This new order is the replacement). I plan to let the older babies out in the coop (with a heat lamp) and putting the new chicks and the little babies I have separate in the big brooder. When I put the older babies in the main coop is it ok if I fill the big feeder with chick starter? Will it hurt the older hen to eat that? I'm afraid if I leave the adult food in the feeder that the babies will eat that and not grow properly. Also... will the babies know to come back inside if I let them out in the run? It is bordered by 2 feet of 1 inch chicken wire with 2x4 6ft welded wire. Should I just close up the coop for another month? If so how long until they will know to come in and out of the coop? (These are all EE's and I think Astralorps) I'm not really worried about the older hen picking on the babies.. she is SO MELLOW!! I'm a first time chicken owner... Please give me some advice!! THANKS!
I have chicks that are about 6 weeks now, when they was 4 weeks, I got a broody and 7 one week old chicks, I put them in all together. The broody keeps the older chicks from abusing the younger ones. She rules the roost. I've seen the little guys try to act big and macho with the older roos and its funny to see a little guy trying to bump chests with one 2x his size. One quick peck and its over and the little guy goes back to mom. They all get along fine and tolerate each other without issues. It also saves the hassle of introducing birds together, they grow up this way kn owing each other. Chicken flocks in the wild would be all different ages and they survived.
I would be wary of putting the silkies out before they are of comparable size. They're just too sweet and wussy to stand up for themselves. Mine, anyway.
I was planning on keeping the silkies with the new day olds that are coming in June... By then they will have 3-4 weeks on the new ones. New development as of today... I put a plexiglass window in the brooder so that the sultan hen I have can see the chicks and vice versa.... Well she's pecking at them like she wants to rip their little beaks off! It's only been a few hours... I'm hoping that she mellows out... If she doesn't I'm going to either have to cage her separately or put a SECOND big cardboard monstrosity brooder in the coop until they are big enough to defend themselves against the evil bantam polish.. haha... Whaddaya think?