Mixing different chick ages

[AlexKilpatrick]

I recently hatched some chicks who are now about 4 days old. I didn't get quite as many as I wanted, so I was going to buy some chicks to integrate with them. I assume the ones I buy will be one day old, but I won't be able to get them until next week, so there will be an age differential of about 2 weeks.

Will there be an issue integrating them? Is there anything special I should do?

 

[Nicole01]

They will be fine. Keep an eye on them for the first half hour just to make sure. You really shouldn't have a problem unless the older chicks were 4-5 weeks or older. My whole flock is a huge varity of age. I have 4 week olds all the way up to 11 week olds with 2 chicks being the same age. I'm having a problem integrating the babies with the 3 oldest(10-11 week olds). They are all in the coop, the babies are in a wire dog kennel to keep them safe.

I mixed ages safely up to 4 weeks of age with the older ones. Once they get a little older, the older ones do not like the newcomers. I have 8 chicks with 7 different breeds. I wouldn't have it any other way. It's worth the extra effort.