help I’m a new chicken owner

[litzy071]

Hello! Recently I got some baby chickens about three weeks ago and just today I bought four more chickens. I was wondering if I can put the new chickens in the same place my other chickens are?? The chickens I got three weeks ago are already growing feathers so I wasn’t quite sure if I should quarantine my new chickens since they’re younger.

 

[Cecisflock]

Hello! Recently I got some baby chickens about three weeks ago and just today I bought four more chickens. I was wondering if I can put the new chickens in the same place my other chickens are?? The chickens I got three weeks ago are already growing feathers so I wasn’t quite sure if I should quarantine my new chickens since they’re younger.

I wouldn’t suggest mixing them as your littler ones could get picked on just set up a new brooder

 

[azygous]

You can put them all together immediately. Under four weeks of age, baby chicks are accepting and size difference isn't an issue. Four weeks and older, it will be.

As for disease, hatchery sourced chicks need no quarantine. They can be assumed to be disease free.

 

[litzy071]

You can put them all together immediately. Under four weeks of age, baby chicks are accepting and size difference isn't an issue. Four weeks and older, it will be.

As for disease, hatchery sourced chicks need no quarantine. They can be assumed to be disease free.

thank you so much for this information!!

 

[rosemarythyme]

If you have space in the brooder I would consider sectioning off part of it for the newest ones, for a few days, to ensure the older ones don't bully or trample them since very young chicks are easier to knock over and push away, and after that it should be fine to let them all mingle together.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum, glad you found us.

I was wondering if I can put the new chickens in the same place my other chickens are??

You can try. I don't give guarantees with chickens and their behaviors, I've seen too many different things happen. I once had a two week old chick kill it's sibling. They were hatched together and were being raised together by a broody hen when that chick decided to kill it's sibling. No integration, no age difference. I don't want to unnecessarily scare you but just to say that anything can possibly happen. I've never had that happen with another chick being raised by a broody hen, I've never had that happen in a brooder.

In your situation I'd try it. Have a Plan B ready if it is needed, you never know. My Plan B would be knowing where I would isolate one or some if I needed to.

The chickens I got three weeks ago are already growing feathers so I wasn’t quite sure if I should quarantine my new chickens since they’re younger.

Age has nothing to do with it. Where did you get them? I don't know what country you are in so you may have other options or methods I'm not aware of. If they came from an established hatchery in the US, I would not worry about quarantine. If they came from an US feed store I would not quarantine them but would recognize the risk is a bit higher.

If they came from a private person I'd have some questions. Were these chicks exposed to other older chickens before you got them? Does that person run a closed flock to minimize exposure to outside chickens? How often does that flock get exposed to strange chickens that might be carrying a disease or parasites.

To me where they came from would make a big difference in this answer.