help please. two different ages in chick groups-suggestions needed

[kasing49]

We ordered 12 chicks. To our dismay 3 came in 2 weeks ahead of the nine others.
So right now we have (3) 5 weeks old chicks and (9) 2 weeks old chicks. Separated in their areas so far
but hard trying to imprint newer chicks in the coop and really hard knowing how to integrate them in with the
older 3 chicks. All suggestions welcome. Kathy

 

[donrae]

I keep a running brooder and add chicks every week as they hatch. I pull them from the brooder at about 3-4 weeks and put them in the outdoor grow-out pen. The gist of this is, I have chicks from newly hatched to 4 weeks old in the same brooder. The only time I really have any issues are with some of the new bantams, they're just so much smaller than the older large fowl birds. But even then, they hold their own pretty well. With your numbers and ages of chicks, I'd just let them all in together and not worry about it. There will be a little bit of introductory pecking and squabbling, but as long as everyone has lots of space things will be fine. They're too little to be heavily invested in a pecking order just yet.