Mixing chickens!

[paulsooie]

Hi I'm new to chickens and have questions. We bought 8 red pullets from TSC 2 weeks ago and thought they were RIR, which they are Golden Comets or some such thing. Would it be wise to go ahead and get 6 RIR chicks and put them in the same brooder, or would the older chicks kill them. I want a few more anyway and really wanted some RIR's. My chicken house I am building is 4x5 with the nesting boxes on the outside so I should have room when I build the bigger run. Any help is appreciated, thank you .

 

[Odelia]

If I understand correctly you want to mix day old chicks with 2 week old chicks in the same brooder. I would just check them several times the first day. Most of the time you can do so without any problems. Make sure your brooder is large enough for all of your birds. Crowding makes everyone grumpy. Good luck!

 

[Odelia]

That does make your coop a bit crowded. As you are not getting bantams your coop comfortably holds 10-12 birds. You might consider selling off some of the Golden comet's you did not want. Also I would recommend staggering your chickens ages. If you max out the capacity of your coop you can not get new birds next year. Bringing in new birds every year or two gives you a more continuous egg supply.

 

[paulsooie]

Thank you so much! . I am wanting to have around 10 hens and a rooster. I figure with them telling me they can't guarantee the sex of the chic I would end up with more roosters, so I would have to get rid of all but 1 and that might leave a vacancy or 3 lol. Does that sound reasonable?

 

[Odelia]

Thank you so much!

. I am wanting to have around 10 hens and a rooster. I figure with them telling me they can't guarantee the sex of the chic I would end up with more roosters, so I would have to get rid of all but 1 and that might leave a vacancy or 3 lol. Does that sound reasonable?

Did you buy sexed chicks? If you did they are fairly accurate. I find that I end up with about 1 rooster for every 10 birds I buy.

 

[paulsooie]

I bought 6 sexed chicks and 2 mixed hoping for a rooster. Was thinking of getting 4 Rhode Island reds and maybe 1 of a breed that goes broody, or a couple of the meat birds that grow quick. I really don't know much about it yet, but it is a lot if fun so far.

 

[paulsooie]

My coop so far