Cohabitation of Meaties w/ Layers

Larkin

Chirping
9 Years
Aug 10, 2010
155
0
99
Northern Wisconsin
New to this whole addicting world of chickens so bear with me and my dumbness.

This year we got day old chicks (15 meat birds and 10 some layers) from a hatchery. Looking aheat to next spring, I would like to get 25 more meaties and wonder when/if they could be in with my lovely layers? I have a 8x15 coop with a nice sized run. Can the young meatballs be okay with older birds in a few weeks or do I need to section off part of the coop for them to live out their 9 weeks?

*May I just say that my family has seen little of me these last few weeks because I like to spend it in the coop with the chicks (watching and listening) and when I'm not there, I am here looking at the interesting posts at BYC. Thank You All, fantastic site!
 
You'd do best sectioning off a portion if you can. The meat birds will get so big that they will have a hard time walking and are easy targets for the layers to pick on- and it's almost certain they will. With the separation, you can also feed the meat birds a different diet, one that will fatten them up, and give the layers one for better eggs.
 
I tried keeping my meaties and layers together at first and it was a disaster. The meaties were so mean and the layers couldn't get any food. And, this was when they were little babies.

Also, meaties don't need as much room as layers. They don't roost because of their legs and how heavy they are, so they only need something to give them a modest amount of room above their heads when they are bigger. We have an old truck cap that we kept ours on with the side vents open.
 

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