mixing ages of chickens and types

[Nalaine]

we have 12 meat birds that are around 6 weeks old....we have baby layers barely 2 weeks old. The meat birds should be ready to butcher in a couple weeks. If we put the babies is there before the others are butcherd....would they hurt them...there are a couple cockerels in the mix?

 

[Barrdwing]

Eep, that's a pretty big difference in sizes, and chickens can be pretty rough on chicks that are younger and smaller. I would be uneasy about combining the two at this point: two-week-olds are still pretty vulnerable and they don't move all that fast yet.

 

[F106A]

The only time I've done it was when I put two-week old production reds in with my four-week old rocks. One of the reds got her tail nipped at over a couple days, but other than that, they've been fine now for two weeks. I don't think I would have done it at this point (six weeks) seeing the size of my rocks. Two-week old chicks would be an easy target for them.

Mark