Getting new chicks tomorrow morning, first time chicken mama

[pixiedouglas]

Hi All! After much research and discussion with hubby (he had chickens when he was a kid) we've decided to start our own backyard flock. I'm very excited, having never had chickens before. We recently purchased a new home with a BIG lot with room for hubby to grow lots of fruits and veggies and thought some chickens would be a great complement and fun for our little ones too. We have an almost four year old daughter and an almost two year old son. Hubby is building a brand new chicken coop for the girls to move into once they get bigger. But in the meantime we're going to have little ones peeping in the garage in their box.

The breeds I'm picking up tomorrow are 2 buff orpington, 2 barred rock, 2 red sex-link, and 1 or 2 delaware. Haven't decided on that part yet, that's where I need some help! I had also wanted to get at least 1 maybe 2 Easter eggers for fun, but the local places where I can get them won't have those breeds till later this month. Would it be a bad idea to have a couple chicks that were 1-2 weeks younger than the rest in the same box with the older chicks? I will just wait and get easter eggers another time if it's a bad idea. I would hate for the older chicks to stomp or peck the slightly younger ones, but they'll need to be all in one box together. Hubby wants to limit the flock to 8 for now, but you know maybe that 9th chick wouldn't get noticed....

 

[skeeter9]

Haha! You sound just like me! When we started with chickens years ago we decided that 6 would be plenty. When I came home from the feed store that first time I had 9 chicks, and it's been downhill from there! I put different ages of chicks in the same brooder all the time and have never had a problem. I wouldn't put brand new babies in with 6-week-old chicks or anything like that, but a couple of weeks shouldn't be a problem at all. In fact, I've got a brooder full of 17 girls right now that range in age from 1 week to 3 1/2 weeks (the plan was to add a "few" more girls to my existing flock this year!!!)

Enjoy your babies!!

 

[2many2count]

I have to say one year we added 2 week younger chicks and had issues but wow that batch had pecking issues to begin with..so if you don't see pecking issues go for it. I have to also add the first year I wanted a few baby chicks we went to local farm store came home with 25...next week was 30...the next week well we ended up with 130 chickens 24 turkeys, 4 ducks and 4 geese. But from my experence do not mix all those in one brooder. But I have to say my favorites are the buff orphingtons and easter eggers....get atleast 2 if not 4 of those they add alot of color and personality to the flock. But good luck and enjoy the wonders of chickens!