We wanted to get a few silver laced wyandottes but the hatchery didn't ship them. I found a woman locally who has a few that were born on 1/21. Our current chicks are 2/10 hatch dates. Can I add the silver laced to the brooder with the rest?
You should be able to, though I would supervise the first day or so. A general rule of thumb is, if they are all under one month, you should have little if any trouble. In your case, the larger ones will probably give the smaller ones a hard time. I would set up two feeding stations and have a generous sized brooder.
I hatched out some english lavandar orps earlier in the month. I then hatched out some EE, whent he EE hatched the orps were already at 3 weeks, I tried just tossing the day olds in, but the older birds started to peck and give the lil sleepys a hard time. I ended up putting the day olds in a smaller tote that could sit directly in the brooder. This let the birds get use to each others sounds and since it was a clear tote, I think they could see each other a bit as well. After about 3 days I removed the tote and have had 0 issues. the birds are all great friends, even though the orps are a good bit bigger. They are so big, they are about to go into my basement for hardening and to enjoy the 4x8 growout pen I have made for them
My rule of thumb is a 3 week difference in age. Monitor them close in the beginning and separate the older ones if there is trouble.
