I just realized

[columbiacritter]

The survivors from todays shipment will be 3 wks old, not near old enough to go outisde, when the replacements for the lost get here. I'm going to have to build a second brooder. Ah nuts.

The replacement chicks won't cost me anymore, but the extra lights, feeders, etc. will.

I'm going to wait a couple weeks before I start making the new set up, so my husband won't blow his top. He's already mad that all the chicks he wanted died.

 

[Kezzie]

You may be able to put them in the same brooder. I got three shipments a week apart (for the same reasons as you) and they have all lived happily together. I think someone in here said that a three week difference is fine.

 

[chickensioux]

I put my 2 different batches together ( about the same age difference as yours) and the new ones tried endlessly to get under the bigger chicks for warmth in spite of the fact that I had a brooder light and they were in my house, not outside. The larger ones relentlessly pecked their heads. I had to immediately remove the smaller babies.
I know some people have mixed their babies with success so I guess my point is give it a shot but just watch and see to be sure the older ones don't hurt the newer ones. Good luck to you and those babies.

 

[columbiacritter]

Oh good, I can at least try. I'll have an emergency box set up if I need to separate them. My brooder is 5 ft long and 2 1/2 feet wide. I can separate the littles to start with. maybe with wire to get them used to each other.

 

[farmin'chick]

There's a great thread somewhere on this site, I believe, that shows how a chick keeper used a piece of plywood, cut out the center and covered it with hardware cloth, and made "subdivision" in their brooder -- dividing it in half -- so that their babies that were being picked on could have a chance to breathe -- maybe you can search it or someone else will know which thread it's on.