How do I introduce new chicks the same age?

[Shagadelic70]

Hi there and thank you for reading my post. I have 6 chicks now coming up on 6 weeks old. They are already in the coop and thriving. There is a poultry farm nearby that has started pullets at the same age as mine, I would like to bring home 4 more chicks. I've read some articles on separating them, but I don't see how I will be able to do this for a week or two. I don't want to separate them in the chicken run, fear of predators out here in the country. Since they are young enough would it be safe to put the new ones together right away or should I just not bring home 4 more chicks?

Sorry if this question sounds stupid but I am new at this and I value your suggestions/opinions. Thank you

 

[FridayYet]

Hi there, another thing you might think of is the possibility of bringing diseases onto your property. Many people recommend keeping new birds separate for one month to watch for illnesses before introducing them to your flock.

 

[azygous]

Quarantines sound like a sensible practice, but when you get down to it, a lot of the scariest diseases are present in healthy appearing chickens and a quarantine isn't going to help detect those, only diseases that are going to manifest symptoms soon.

So it's up to individual chicken keeps whether to quarantine or not. Personally, I feel it's more sensible to know and consider under what conditions the chickens I'm importing were raised, and thus dispense with quarantines.

Now. What was the question? Oh yeah. Chicks the same age? Toss them in together right away.

Chicks don't get serious about the pecking order for some weeks yet, and at six weeks, they're pretty much okay with new chicks coming into their group.

What you'll get is a few pecks delivered on the newcomers by the home crew to let them know they have squatter's rights and all should go pretty normally from the next minute on.

 

[Shagadelic70]

Quarantines sound like a sensible practice, but when you get down to it, a lot of the scariest diseases are present in healthy appearing chickens and a quarantine isn't going to help detect those, only diseases that are going to manifest symptoms soon.

So it's up to individual chicken keeps whether to quarantine or not. Personally, I feel it's more sensible to know and consider under what conditions the chickens I'm importing were raised, and thus dispense with quarantines.

Now. What was the question? Oh yeah. Chicks the same age? Toss them in together right away.

Chicks don't get serious about the pecking order for some weeks yet, and at six weeks, they're pretty much okay with new chicks coming into their group.

What you'll get is a few pecks delivered on the newcomers by the home crew to let them know they have squatter's rights and all should go pretty normally from the next minute on.

Thank you so much for your advice. I am still debating on bringing in new chicks.