I may have bitten off more than i can choke down...

[sparkles2307]

Um, so I have 7 week olds in the coop. They have a seperate pen from the adults, but they can see each other...the chicks have a seperate fenced run, and the adults free-range. My issue is, My brooder is wuickly becoming too small for my growing 1-2 week olds...and I dont have another pen for them! Can I mix them in with the 7 week olds or can I put the 7 week olds with the adults? I dont know what to do! We can really put up a whole nother building right now, DH is farming and has no time for helping me... what should I do!?

 

[lemurchaser]

How many of each age group? If you had like a couple 7 weekers and many 2 weekers you could probably do it. But that's a pretty big age gap.

 

[sben451]

If you have enough room in your coop, try temporarily dividing the coop. That's what we did as groups of young chicks outgrew the brooder. I got 3 ft. t-posts and plastic fencing at HD and made a couple of pens within the coop. As they get older and if there are any others in the coop who like to fly, you may have to put a top (use the plastic fencing) on the small pen to keep older birds out and little flyers in. In my coop, I have a 5 x 5 area for 5 young Silkies, then I have another area (about 10 x 3) for my younger Welsummer chicks. So far, this has worked well for us. I left a walkway down the middle and my 4 older Silkies have room to get to their nests, roost area, feed and water, plus they can go out into their run while the little ones are safe in their respective areas.

 

[sparkles2307]

OK I'll try the pen-inside-the-pen. We have more 7 weekers than 2 weekers....

 

[Megs]

in that case i would not mix the two, that is a big age gap and the little uns would be picked on. also wouldnt mix 7 week with adults, also likely to get picked on