I'm just starting off with chickens this year, so please excuse this question if it is a bit too noobie.
There are one or two breeders in our area that are selling brreds of chicks that would like to raise (target is 5-6 chickens). However, as you might imagine, the hatch dates are not the same and can vary by as much as 2-3 weeks. We would like to have 2 silkies, 2 wyandottes, and 2 orpingtons in the flock and the plan was to have them all 'grow-up' together so everyone is familiar (i.e. minimize later integration problems). However, how do we go about getting all the different chicks into the same environment together when some might be 2 day old chicks and others being 2 week old pullets? Do we get them all to a certain age before combining? Other thoughts?
Also, would there be a concern if we source the chicks from more than one breeder and try to combine them? We were going to purchase the chicks from My Pet Chicken, but several of the breeds (i.e. silkies) are back ordered for 3 months or so. As such, could we purchase some of our chicks from a mailorder shop and then source the others from a local breeder? Outside of communicable diseases, are there other concerns? We'll likely have to deal with the same differences in ages I mentioned above too.
Thanks for any advice you might have!
-Okt
There are one or two breeders in our area that are selling brreds of chicks that would like to raise (target is 5-6 chickens). However, as you might imagine, the hatch dates are not the same and can vary by as much as 2-3 weeks. We would like to have 2 silkies, 2 wyandottes, and 2 orpingtons in the flock and the plan was to have them all 'grow-up' together so everyone is familiar (i.e. minimize later integration problems). However, how do we go about getting all the different chicks into the same environment together when some might be 2 day old chicks and others being 2 week old pullets? Do we get them all to a certain age before combining? Other thoughts?
Also, would there be a concern if we source the chicks from more than one breeder and try to combine them? We were going to purchase the chicks from My Pet Chicken, but several of the breeds (i.e. silkies) are back ordered for 3 months or so. As such, could we purchase some of our chicks from a mailorder shop and then source the others from a local breeder? Outside of communicable diseases, are there other concerns? We'll likely have to deal with the same differences in ages I mentioned above too.
Thanks for any advice you might have!
-Okt