chicks arriving 4 weeks apart, integration question

[buttonsamy]

So, I accidentally ordered 6 buff silkie chicks that are arriving at the end of this week, June 28th- (long story short, I called to ASK about if they could be ordered and the store ordered them)

I am getting 25 chicks that arrive July 23/24th, (silkies, bantam buff brahmas and bantam EEs) so the chicks will be a little less than 4 weeks apart in age. Is it possible to integrate them into the same brooder or coop together? We have VERY limited space indoors so we cannot keep them inside and only one coop outside.

EEP! HELP! What should I do?

This is my first time raising chickens. I am currently raising 9 guineas that are almost ready to be free range, and they were VERY easy to deal with. Cannot wait to get my chicks! I have wanted chickens my whole life!

Please help, very little time to build a second coop, etc and I want to make sure everyone will get along. My coop has room for 35 bantams or so comfortably, and has a large outdoor run as well and can be used as a brooder house too.

Thanks in advance!
Amy

 

[angel8035]

Separate them with chicken wire the first few weeks until the younger chicks are big enough to not get trampled by the big chicks. Make sure they can see each other through the wire. It should be okay to combine them after a few weeks as they are still young and shouldn't have formed too much of a pecking order by then. Just make sure that they all have access to fresh food and water and the heat lamp.

I am doing this right now - have two brooders right next to each other separated by wire in the middle. My chicks are two weeks apart but that is quite a big size difference. In another week I will combine the two brooders so all chicks are together.

 

[gumbita]

I just did this - I had four 4-week-old silkies and I added two 3-day-old EEs - I had originally had the silkies in a large plastic container, but I knew it wouldn't last two much longer, and definitely not until the coop and run were built and could go outside. So my husband was able to find a large watermelon box at the grocery store and then I took parts of a wire cube shelf and made a see through partition. As it turned out, I put the new chicks in their side, and they were apparently small enough to fit through the holes of the partition, so within 15 seconds they made it over to the side with my silkies and were cuddling with them. Now after just a week, the new chicks are bigger than the smallest silkie! But anyways, I'm a new chicken owner too, and from my researching on here before I did it, everyone pretty much said that they can be thrown in together and watched very closely (as long as you provide multiple food and water containers) or you can separate them with a partition for a little while until the chicks get a little bigger but they can still see each other. Maybe you could do this with two cardboard boxes put together with a screen of some sort between the two?

 

[buttonsamy]

Ok snuggling with the older chicks?!? Beyond cute! Thanks for the help and advice! Chicks arrive today! Only a few more hours until I am off work!!!