New to raising chicks and have a couple of questions

[newchickmomof48]

Hi everyone. Been reading alot of your post and it has helped with the preperation for my chicks! I do have a couple of questions;

First, My chicks I odered are coming June 16th. I order 25 Special assortment and 5 female white Pearls. My neighbor just received her Female Bantams and has deceided to give me 18 of them. I am very excited but am un sure how to introduce them all to each other. When I pick up my Bantams they will be a week and I am putting them into the brooder we built in our house. My others will be coming in three weeks so there will be a three week age difference in the two flocks. My question is will I be able to put them together at some point or am I going to have to keep them seperate?

Second, we do have other pets? How did anyone introduce the chickens to your other pets o let the other pets know they belong there? Thanks for any suggestion

tanya

 

[barred rock'er]

Okay keep them seperate for a while, they grow extremely fast, and the ones that are 3wks older will be much larger than the new chicks,and may bully them.
What you could do is have the female bantams in the brooder untill the others arrive at which time you'll need to have another brooder/area for them.

Clean the brooder the older ones where in with a water/bleach mixture
90%water 10% bleach. and then put the younger ones in it as soon as it is clean and dry.

Eventually you will be able to have them all together when they're all big enough. and even the watch for any bullies.

do you have a big enough place for all of them once they're full grown?
48 is a lot!