Integrating 2 new chicks

[burt4750]

I have two 8 day old D'uccles and I want to add two 7 day old salmon favorelle chicks into the brooder with them today. Will I have any problems doing this? I will also be adding 6 one day old chicks of various breeds on the 27th. I need some advice about integrating all of these chickies!

 

[SamuelMcF]

for the 8 and 7 day olds, you shouldn't have any problems at all. They are still really small and won't have any pecking order yet.

For adding the one-day olds you need to be more careful though. The larger ones by then will be way bigger and can hog all the food. You can mix them but need to make sure the little ones aren't getting picked on and are getting enough to eat. Having multiple feeders/waterers will help with this. It is maybe a good idea to wait until the day olds are a week old or so and you make sure they aren't so fragile before mixing them together.