Day-olds with two-week old chicks?

[imthedude]

My chick order got split into two batches this year. The second batch will arrive Friday. The first batch will be two weeks old on Thursday. Any problem with putting them all together right off the bat? I really don't want to have two brooders in the laundry room for the next 6 weeks.....

 

[jenesis536]

I'm so glad you posted this because I was just about to post the same thing! I just got four 4 day olds and four 1.5 week old chicks on Saturday that are in the same brooder. I'm planning on picking up four 4 day old chicks on Sat, so the others will be 1.5 and 2.5 weeks older. I only have 1 large brooder box, so I was hoping to put them all together. Sorry to piggy back on your post, but I'm interested in the feedback people have.

 

[gryeyes]

I do it all the time. Right now in one brooder I have two chicks hatched 1/1/11, one hatched 1/2/11, one hatched 1/3/11, one hatched 1/10/11, two hatched six days ago and one hatched 4 days ago.

I've done it before, too. About 3.5 weeks' difference is the most I would recommend, because the little ones get bowled over all the time by the larger, older ones. Plus, I tend to keep the little ones a day longer in the incubator just to let them get their legs under them really well so they CAN roll over and get up faster when that happens.

 

[imthedude]

picked up six more day-olds today. man they are so much smaller -already- than the 3-week old birds. now i have three partridge rocks, two barred rocks, two buff orps, three delawares, and three RIR getting ready to join the other 10 that are already outside.

 

[CathyM]

I had problems when I tried to put two new 2-week chicks in with the four 4-week chicks I'd gotten.. the little 2-weeks literally fell over and lay paralyzed with fright! I thought they were sick and took them back,but once at the store with their fellows, they were fine! So I took them (or two others - hard to tell) home again, and the same thing happened. So I put them in another brooder box right next to the other, and even that didn't work-- they stood frozen with fear! So I brought them into another room, and they were fine as long as they couldn't hear the other chicks... now that they're all grown, the two youngers (barred rocks) free-range with the others but get picked on a lot...but I had to build a second coop to house them at night -- they had the same frantically frightened behavior when I tried to coop them together!

So- it might work, but if the younger ones start acting odd, they might be terrified.

 

[wannabchick]

You know I gave away 4 2 week old silkies..kept one..it was yelling it's head off for 20 minutes, so I put it with the 3 month old very very calm white silkie

Instantly love..I mean I think the 3 month old thinks it is it's mom, and now it's been two more weeks and all is great

Hatched 3 days ago, 5 bantam amerecaunas..put an oven grill in the middle trying to add a divider in the box

Uhhh silly me, the little amerecaunans fit right threw it so it's so funny..they go right over to the other two..and when they don't want to be on that side..they run back to their side..this morning i woke up and they were all sleeping together on the silkie side..lol

 

[Backyard Hencam]

I've always read that it is O.K. to combine different ages "up to about two weeks". That is a generalization, of course, but because their needs vary at different ages, I wouldn't spread it out too much. Best of luck to you and your little flock.

 

[N&MSchroeder]

I would like to piggyback on this post as well. I am expecting chicks on March 1 and March 21. My plan was to keep them separate for a few weeks and then combine them when the little ones are better established. Is this a bad plan or should they go in together from the start?

 

[imthedude]

decided to separate them last night. the bigger birds are way too big and rambunctious to be in with the little ones. i'll combine them in a bigger brooder in the garage before long.