combining chicks

[kerroppi76]

Can anyone give me help/suggestions on when I could merge the 2 sets of chicks that I have? One set (set A) is full size chickens 9 days older than set B which are silkies. They are still very young. Set A is 2 weeks old today and set B will be one week Wed. I know it is too soon now since the silkies are so tiny next to my chubby girls but just looking for help. Thanks

 

[jenkassai]

I don't know what to say about quarantine if that is an issue when they are so young, or maybe you hatched them yourself or got them from the same place? As far as the age difference, I have one bantam in with the rest of my standard sized chicks and they all get along fine. The standard sized chicks though are all breeds that I *think* are supposed to be pretty non-aggressive, so I don't know if that has made a difference. My biggest and oldest chicks are about three, maybe four weeks older than the youngest chicks, which includes the bantam. I watched them very closely when I first put the youngest in to make sure there was no bullying, and I set it up so some food and water was right in front of the Ecoglow (heater) at first so that the newbies didn't have to venture out too far to get food and water and could run back under the Ecoglow if they felt threatened. It seemed to work great! If you don't have a heater like that, you could do the same thing with some kind of box or make a little thing out of wood blocks so the tiny chicks had a place to get away from the bigger ones if they needed to.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

I think they might all be okay together, just watch their behavior twards one another.

~ Aspen

 

[KDailey]

I put my 2-day old chicks in with my 2-week old chicks and everyone is perfectly fine. I've got bantums and standards

 

[srfjeld]

That seems like a good age for smooth integration... I added 2 "day" olds to my 3 "2 week" olds a couple months ago with no problem at all. Not so easy the older they get.

 

[KDailey]

Quote:
^ Exactly what I mean. lol. I had 5 chicks and knew I wanted more so I figured I'd get them when they were still young so they could integrate easier

 

[kerroppi76]

thank you everyone. I hav e to change the brooders tomorrow so I think I will combine them then! Thanks agian!

 

[kerroppi76]

well i added the silkies to the bigger girls for a few hours one day and they got pecked a little so put them back for the night and did it agian in the morning. The pecking was a little better and by the end of the morning the bigger girls were getting pecked back! So I left them and they seem to be doing fine. Thanks for all the help!