Introducing new chicks to older chicks

[Demidog]

I've got 2 chicks who are nearly 3 weeks old now. I want to get a few more from the market today. Is it OK to just put the new ones in with the older ones? Or will the older ones kill them? Do i need to quarantine them first, or wait till they're a bit bigger before putting them together? What should i do?

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

The older chicks, without a doubt, will kill them. Perhaps on purpose, perhaps by accident. You'll need to set up 2 different brooders until both hatches are fully feathered. They can see each other, but putting young chicks with older chicks is a death wish. They tend to stomp on the younger ones by accident, or sit on them

 

[CollegeChicken]

I agree with the person above. The age difference is too big and the older chicks will cause stress and probably harm to the new chicks.

 

[iwiw60]

I've got 2 chicks who are nearly 3 weeks old now. I want to get a few more from the market today. Is it OK to just put the new ones in with the older ones? Or will the older ones kill them? Do i need to quarantine them first, or wait till they're a bit bigger before putting them together? What should i do?

Here's an idea...they can see 'them' and them can see 'they'...if you get my drift!!

 

[klinderman]

We JUST introduced 2 few day old chicks to 7 two week old chicks, and so far so good. We paid CLOSE attention for the first day, and there was the initial pecking at toes, but that seemed to subside rather quickly and now everyone is getting along quite well. We have a back up brooder in case things take a turn for the worse, but i have a feeling the older girls like having these youngsters around. To play it safe, if you can't monitor, i would place a piece of plexiglass or chicken wire between the newbies and the older chicks, so they can view each other safely, then slowly integrate them

 

[Demidog]

Thanks for the advice guys.


OK, so i got 4 new 2 day old chicks. I put them together with the older ones in the bathtub to see how they'd get along. The biggest one was doing a bit of pecking at first and i was batting it away with my hand. But it seemed to settle down after 5 minuets. And some of the smaller ones started pecking back. After the initial greetings they seemed to not bother with each other. I was watching them for 20 minuets or so then put them back separately. I think I'll put them together everyday for a while under supervision and if everything is going OK, and once they're used to each other, I'll stick them all in together. Hopefully they'll all be OK.