Yesterday I tried to put my four 5-week old chicks in with my 9 and 10 week old chicks. It didn't work. I knew there would be a certain amount of pecking, but it got pretty bad. I let the smaller ones loose in the coop and introduced the older chicks two at a time. Let them be together for a bit, then slowly added two more older chicks until they were almost all together. My sweet Maggie (one of my 10-wk old EEs) did great...she even laid down with the chicks (I got a photo, I'll post it later in this post). I think my black sex-links would be fine but I have one little blue EE chick that just freaked out every time a bigger chick even looked at it. It would run around and get the big chicks all stirred up and get them running after it. Then they'd pick on the babies. I gave them hunks of watermelon to distract the older chicks and they would all eat together and then all heck would break loose because that blue baby would start screaming and running.
I have had the babies in a mini-coop (read: cardboard box with chicken wire on it for windows so they can all see each other) inside the big coop for two weeks before I tried putting them together. I can't free-range my chicks so this has to happen inside the coop. It's the only place,other than the tractor and they would be too hard to get out if there was a problem then. I still keep a light on in the coop all day/night so there really isn't any darkness to help in putting them together at night. I'm just so tired of these babies having to be in the mini-coop and hope you guys can help. Besides, it's a big box and takes up a lot of space in the coop. I barely have enough room for all my chicks in there now and they are growing so fast they need all the space they can get.
Here's Maggie during a peaceful moment when the babies were loose in the coop.
Thanks for any helpful advice you can give me.
I have had the babies in a mini-coop (read: cardboard box with chicken wire on it for windows so they can all see each other) inside the big coop for two weeks before I tried putting them together. I can't free-range my chicks so this has to happen inside the coop. It's the only place,other than the tractor and they would be too hard to get out if there was a problem then. I still keep a light on in the coop all day/night so there really isn't any darkness to help in putting them together at night. I'm just so tired of these babies having to be in the mini-coop and hope you guys can help. Besides, it's a big box and takes up a lot of space in the coop. I barely have enough room for all my chicks in there now and they are growing so fast they need all the space they can get.
Here's Maggie during a peaceful moment when the babies were loose in the coop.

Thanks for any helpful advice you can give me.