Mixing Chicks of Different Ages

[LONDON HENS]

I have two 8 week old chicks and plan to put five or six 4-5week old chicks with them, would this work?

The older chicks had a hen bring them up, but she has lost interest in them and I will put her back with the laying hens when I get these five or six chicks who have been hatched in an incubator.

Do you think they will be Ok??

Thanks for any advice!

 

[PressOn]

Quote:
I have a similar situation. My stepson and I bought 10 chicks this last weekend. In order to get the selection that we wanted we ended up with 5 one day old chicks and 5 one month old chicks. I am not going to risk putting them together. Or risk putting them with the big girls.

I am thinking about building a separation tractor coop inside my existing chicken run. 4’X 2’ floor 16” off the ground with a run underneath, fenced off around the coop legs. In addition to needing to separate the chickens I also need to separate the adults one at a time to find out who is holding out on the egg laying.

I got a new grill for father’s day and I am just looking for excuses to use it.

I am curious to find out other peoples input on the separation issue. One piece of advice I received from someone at work is to get a big escape box with a hole only big enough for the smaller chickens

 

[clucked]

I raised 12 RIR's from chicks, they are 9 weeks. We decided to get more chickens of the same age. We ended up with 13 bared rocks which are supposed to be the same age as the RIR's. We were told to put them in a dog crate, of which I had one large enough in the coup to let them check each other out. After a couple of days was told to open the crate door at night so they could all wake up in the morning together. When we let them all out the RRI's were pecking the BR's so badly that we separated them. We can't seem to get them to get along. We were told if they draw blood that they will continue to kill that bird! I just can't have that! My husband said we should sell them. I don't really want to but not sure what to do. The RIR's were so sweet and let us hold them, so I don't know what to do. Can anyone help?

 

[mynamesjenelle]

You said that they are supposed to be the same age, but are they the same size? If the barred rocks are significantly smaller than the others, even if they are the same age, they will get picked on. I got a 3-month old pullet that I put in with some six-week old chicks, thinking that there were more chicks than her and she couldn't beat up on them. Even though she was twice as old, she was small and the little ones were big breeds so she didn't pick on them. Except for one little barred rock that she hated for no reason at all except she was a bit smaller than the others. She got chased around and pecked and harassed something terrible.

I tried everything. I left them alone, and my little girl got harassed. I put the big one in a separate box for a day, but she went right back to it when they were together. I put her in a separate run from the others so they could still see each other while separated, and she would squawk and run around trying to get to them. Finally I just treated her like a dog - every time she went after my little girl I sprayed her with water! She HATED it and would run and hide. I had to do it for a couple of days, but after that she left her alone. I even caught them sleeping together on the roost the other night.

So, if you have the time to sit and watch and spray them when they get obnoxious to the others, I highly recommend it. Plus if it's a hot day it will help them cool off


One other thing you can do is put them together on 'neutral' territory. I used a tractor out in the yard that none of them had ever been in before. I've read that it keeps them from getting territorial towards the new birds since they don't have any claim on the space. With your situation you might try letting your newbies have run of the coop, while you keep the grumpy ones in the dog crate for a few days. That way the new birds can get a feel for the space and get more comfortable with it too before getting thrown in together again.

 

[Treyiou]

I currently have 1- 10 week old RIR, 1-7 week old Buff Orrington and 2 - 5 week old Black Aussies. The RIR and Buff have been together for about two weeks with no issues. Adding the two younger Black Aussies resulted in about one day of moderate pecking by the RIR and the Buff. After one night together in the Coop the RIR has adopted them all as her 'babies" and everyone is happy.

 

[ChickengirlK]

I'm brand new to raising chickens. I just got two 23 week old hens and five 6 week olds. The breeder told me they'd be fine together. They've been together two days now. I have them in a coop with large pen/run since we can't free range. Anyway, the older girls are picking on the "babies" like crazy. The little ones will try to huddle together and stay away from the big girls and then the big ones come and chase them around and peck them. It's upsetting me, ha, I understand the pecking order, but are the 6 week olds too young? What would you all do? Help! Thanks!

 

[chickenboy190]

I have 3 3 year hens 7 18 weeks and 6 9 weeks. The 3 peck the 7 the 7 peck the 6 and the 6 don't peck anybody but the grass.

 

[waldeneffect]

My wife summed up our experience of mixing chicks of different ages.

http://www.avianaquamiser.com/posts/Mixing_chicks_of_different_ages/

 

[GJudy]

Your story of mixing chicks is so encouraging. We have had a rotten (pun intended) experience hatching our own eggs. Twice the hens had nests of 12+ eggs. First time one hatched with 5-6 started and died in-egg. 2nd time 2 hatched with 4-5 dying in-egg while other eggs were just nothing. Varmints broke into our brooder pen and ate the first one along with mother. Only one survived from the 2nd hatching. These are black australorp and brown leghorn crosses.

Surviving baby is about 3 weeks old. We have 25 light brahmas hatching from Cackle Hatchery tomorrow. We were thinking that we would wait until dark on Thursday, pick-up day, separate chick and mama. Put chick in with the newbies and mama back with the hens. Chicks have a separate house and now more varmint proof pen, but all share a common fence. The older chick will never be as large as the brahmas -- they should catch up in size quickly. Last year, we had BAs, Lt Brahmas and brown leghors all in one batch from day one and they got along pretty well.

Another option would be to put chick and mama in with the hens. Except tonight when I went to get eggs and give treats, I thought the mama was kind of indifferent to negligent to making sure baby got some. She gobbled it all herself. Does that mean weaning? If chickie is on his'her own, going with the bigger hens might not be a good thing.

No rooster. After we made sure the varmints (sorta-feral cats) couldn't get into the brooder pen, they got into the hen pen and ate our rooster and 4 more hens. We were gone on a family emergency and the neighbor doing our chores sent them all to heaven. We have 13 hens left, some 3 yrs some 2 yrs, all busy laying well with large house and pen.

 

[GJudy]

Every thing appears to be working. The 3 day old chicks and the 4 week old chick spent two nights together. yesterday, when the door was opened for feeding, the bigger chick got out. Ir's been used to being outside so we left him run with food and water outside. Last night, we caught it in the dark and put him inside. A second night with warmth, water, food and companionship has special appeal. chick wasn't interested in escaping today. Mama was a little upset at being back in the hen pen, but not a lot. They were all excited by the chick noise, which messed with their laying. 10 eggs first day, 2 the second day. We'll see what happens today.

The babies are cute, yellow, fuzzy light brahmas and the bigger chick is a cross. Black Australorp mama and brown leghorn dad. At 4 weeks old, looks more like a pterodactyl than a song bird.