Different chicks from different places

[nikif]

Can you get different chicks from different people/hatcheries, within a couple weeks of each other in age, and keep them in same brooder until ready to go to their coop? Thanks!

 

[SueT]

A couple of weeks makes a big difference in chicks. The bigger ones will probably bully the little ones and hog the food. You could divide the brooder with some sort of see-no-touch arrangement. By 4 weeks, the elders will be big enuf to move out, while the young ones will have to stay in the brooder. So it will take some finagling....

 

[BulldogsandChickens]

That is what I did with my flock. I lost a few early on and added new chicks into same brooder. I did put up a screen for a day to get them used to each other. It has worked out fine for me. I do notIce the original survivors hang out together a lot more but no troubles.

 

[rosemarythyme]

From different places shouldn't be an issue, but if they're more than a week, two weeks apart, I would make sure to have a back up plan ready to go in case they need to be separated (like wire to split the brooder space in two, extra feeder, extra waterer, even an extra heat source (if you're not using a heat lamp).