Help with brooder for chicks.

[marlene]

Hi i have posted this in the incubating section but think i might be better off posting here, so here goes- I have 3 staggered hatches first one due 5 sept, second due 14 sept and the last one will be due 3 weeks from now on 19 sept as they are going in bator tomorrow.
My question is do i set up 1 brooder for when they hatch and then set up a large brooder to move them into before the next hatch is due, eventually having them all in the large brooder together or will i need 1 brooder for each hatch?.
Would love to hear what you have all done in this situation, happy to recieve advise and suggestions as i am new to hatching and keeping chicks.

 

[Karen09]

Some will say keep them separate, others will say go ahead and mix them as long as they have enough room, and yet others it depends on the breed of chicks. I have put different ages together and they have been fine and other times, if I have a more aggressive breed, I have had to keep them separate. I tried putting 16 week olds in with my flock that is anywhere from 24 weeks to 2 years. The alpha rooster did not like having a new rooster in the area and wanted to fight. He is usually very sweet and has not bothered any other bird before (he is 2). So I put the two 16 week old (blue orphington pair) in a breeding coop that the rest of the flock can get used to being around them and I am going to keep them separate for about 1 week and then I will try again. I know it is better to have the roosters grow up together but as the blue orphington roosters I did have got killed by raccoons this spring (raccoon problem has been taken care of), I got this pair. You can try it and see how they react to each other, you may want to wait alittle while until the little ones get more stable on their feet. Good luck!

 

[marlene]

Thanks for the advise, i am thinking i will at least give it a try to put them in together but not till they are 1-2 weeks old and see if it works. Don't really have the space for 3 brooders so i am hoping they will all eventually be together in 1 large brooder, there will be 9 days between the 1st and second hatch and them 5 days between the 2nd and 3rd hatching. The breeds i have are 5 light sussex and 12 silkies, i know the silkies are supposed to be a friendly calm breed but not sure about the light sussex as i have not had these before.

 

[Karen09]

I had silkies in with the other baby chicks I had and they all got along fine. In fact some of the other chicks protected the silkies. It was cute. You will have to let us know how things go.

 

[marlene]

I will deffinately update once they are here as too how they are getting on. Thanks for the advise.