Integrating 4-week and 1-week chicks? (question about spacing hatchings)

[julskinka]

I have some welsummer eggs being shipped in mid-April, some oliver eggers that will be shipped at a date to be determined, and I have access to some local blue eggs now. My replacement incubator arrives next week, and I'm dying to get started.

My initial thought was that I'd do all the local eggs first and then do a second hatch of shipped eggs in April, but I'm not sure whether that would actually work out best for the chickens. I'm not currently set up with multiple brooders, so if they needed to stay separated, it would be best for me to wait and do it all as one hatch. Additionally, any babies would eventually need to be integrated into the adult flock, so I don't want to over-complicate that as well.

Last time I hatched, I did a staggered hatch and integration was fine, but the littles were only 7-10 days younger, not several weeks.

So, what would best practice be? Wait and do them all at once? Or would it not matter and I can start getting my incubation on next weekend (and have twice as much fun!)? I'd clearly prefer to start sooner and do two, but only if that's ok for the chicks. I suppose another option would be to do a staggered hatch again...

Thanks for your advice!

 

[Mosey2003]

A 3 week difference would make me very nervous.

 

[julskinka]

Although, now that I think about it, my brooder is very long, and I had it halved off when the chicks were small last time, only expanding it once they were several weeks old. If I were to divide the brooder again, would they be able to be integrated after the youngers were a few weeks along? How do people normally integrate cohorts that are only a month apart?

 

[julskinka]

A 3 week difference would make me very nervous.

Yeah, that was my worry. At what age would a three week gap *not* make you nervous?

 

[Mosey2003]

Yeah, that was my worry. At what age would a three week gap *not* make you nervous?

Probably when the younger ones were about three weeks old. They should be pretty robust and hearty by that age. I'd still want lots of space and lots of feeders.

 

[aart]

I've had both good and bad luck adding chicks up to a span of about 3-4 weeks.

I put two 18 hour old chicks in a split brooder, a 4 week old chick really wanted in there, and the newbies really wanted in with the crowd of 1-4wo's. So I took a chance and put the big in with the tikes, it just wanted their feed and water and paid them no mind...so I put the tikes in with the crowd and they fit right in no problemo.
All that prep and worry

And I've had it go badly sideways with 3 age groups spanning 1-3 weeks....took me weeks to get them together in the day pen, and with 3 brooder spaces inside.

So, what would best practice be? Wait and do them all at once?

Yes!