Mahonri's 2nd Annual BYC EASTER HATCH. Post pics of your chicks!

[daisychick]

Chickhick: It totally depends on the chicks. I always mix them if they are up and walking strong, A week in age difference isn't too much in my opinion. I just keep an eye on the younger ones and make sure no one is getting trampled or picked on. Sometimes the bigger ones become surrogate moms and the little ones cuddle up to them. Just try it and see and keep a space available in case you have to separate them.

 

[SteveH]

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Thank you!

 

[SteveH]

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Thank you! I actually retired from the competions two years ago [due to declining health and the high cost of travel.] Last fall some local Greater Swiss Mountain Dog and Malamute breeders organized a series of pulls all within 1 to 30 miles from me; we've been doing about a competion per month since then.

 

[shelleyd2008]

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This is why I love doing staggered hatches...I have chicks hatching every week, so no one is ever alone for long

I have a question about that. How far apart in ages is it okay to raise them together? I have some a week old in the garage brooder, and I have a batch inside who are 2-3 days old, and next week I have another batch of eggs hatching. Next week can I put these babies in with the others, and then add the new ones when they are about a week old?

For me it depends on what breeds there are and how many of each age group you have. Right now I have serama and LF EE in the same brooder but they all hatched at the same time--about 2 weeks old. Obviously I wouldn't want to put the serama babies that are hatching today in with the 2 w/o LF EE chicks, they'd surely squish them. But I can put them with the LF EE and BCM chicks that hatched 3-4 days ago. If you have a large group of youngsters going in with a similar-sized or smaller group of older chicks (like a group of 10 new babies in with 5 older chicks) the older ones usually are too scared to bother the new ones.

But it really depends, you just have to watch them. I've got 5 brooders inside so I can find someplace to put new ones

 

[RareBreedFancier]

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Oh my! I'm a long way behind this thread but this is priceless!!!
Pretty much how I stopped my DH freaking when I set 24 and then another 24 two days later.

Mind you, he hasn't asked how many are running around in the brooder and I'm not going to tell him (18 fuzzy butts!) because he was having a fit about the first 10 of them!

That's only likely to be 9 girls though so it's not that bad.

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If only customs wouldn't have a fit...

soooooooo many things I'd love to bring home...

 

[Rathbone]

IF it were possible, eggs would be my souvenier of choice.

 

[countrygirl911]

well DH going to kill me when he gets home lol i stoped at the feed store and picked up 4 more chicks including the 4 i kept from my on hatch the others went to my cousin i am up to 8 chicks in the brooder i have 4 1 week olds and 4 3 day olds the new ones just stand there doing nothing but look like they are falling asleep what DH does not know also is that tomorrow i most likely will go back and get 4 more lol

 

[jenjscott]

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If the chicks are standing up and falling asleep, it can indicate that they are too cold. Have you checked the temperature in your brooder?

 

[Lotsapaints]

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I hatch about every other week and I have a big stall 12 X12 that has a nice hoover brooder in it and I just keep adding chicks the oldest in their are from New Years....I have no problems so far the older ones even the boys watch over those little ones the least amount of chicks I added was 2 but I do wait for them to be 2 weeks old or better before they go outside....I should get a picture of them all sunning together and I have turkeys in there too the turkeys are the best moms.....

 

[countrygirl911]

the temp is reading at 98 degrees its only 2 of them and one of their wings looks like it is droopy the feed store got them in today and i drove 45 minutes after that to get home but when i first got them i picked out the ones that held both wings to their side because a good bit of the others had one wing sagging will they be ok