Putting different aged chicks together...

[llombardo]

the enclosure should be done soon. I'm working my butt off here. I have 3 that are 11 weeks and one is 10 weeks that were raised together. They will go out first. I just got 4 that are 3 weeks and will put them out in about a month.

Questions are

When does a flock become established?

Are they close enough in age that integrating them should be somewhat easy?

I do not have a seperate area that they can be kept in 24/7 but I was thinking I can shut the coop and keep the smaller ones in there during the day for a few days and bring them in at night until they get used to each other. Will that work?

The new babies

 

[Wyorp Rock]

the enclosure should be done soon. I'm working my butt off here. I have 3 that are 11 weeks and one is 10 weeks that were raised together. They will go out first. I just got 4 that are 3 weeks and will put them out in about a month.

Questions are

When does a flock become established?

Are they close enough in age that integrating them should be somewhat easy?

I do not have a seperate area that they can be kept in 24/7 but I was thinking I can shut the coop and keep the smaller ones in there during the day for a few days and bring them in at night until they get used to each other. Will that work?

The new babies

View attachment 1392006 View attachment 1392007

How big is your coop and run going to be?

IMHO, the oldest group is already an established "flock", for now, they have likely settled the pecking order, but that can sometimes be a subtle, yet ever changing thing.
Personally, I would not put the 3wk olds "loose" with the older ones. If you have room, brood them in the coop in a very large cage, or section off an area where they can all see one another.

 

[mrsfoxypants]

I'm going to keep an eye on this thread. I'm getting a new batch of chicks in a week here and so we will have 1 year olds, 13 week olds, and new babies. AHHHH! Poor planning on my part (couldn't resist the chicks at Chick Days). Could be a difficult transition.

 

[llombardo]

How big is your coop and run going to be?

IMHO, the oldest group is already an established "flock", for now, they have likely settled the pecking order, but that can sometimes be a subtle, yet ever changing thing.
Personally, I would not put the 3wk olds "loose" with the older ones. If you have room, brood them in the coop in a very large cage, or section off an area where they can all see one another.

The 3 week old chicks will not go out there for another 4-6 weeks at least. So they will be ideally 8-10 weeks and the older ones will be 16-18 weeks.

 

[ChickieChickieMama]

I'm doing this right now, so I will try to keep you posted on how it goes and any tips or tricks I stumble upon!

My older flock is only seven weeks old and I have just moved my three week old chicks out into a brooder coop inside of my larger coop. My older chicks have only been out in the coop for two weeks now so they're still getting the hang of things themselves and I'm hoping that will help with the transition!

So far so good. I go out there mid afternoon every day and spend time with the flock, then I take the babies out one at a time to hold while I sit in the run with the older chicks so they can watch one another.

The big chicks enjoy watching the smaller ones through the cage, especially my dominant rooster! My flock is really docile to begin with and there are never any shuffles. I plan on keeping them in here for at least another week before I start to allow them supervised free play of the coop and then probably another week after that before I let them out into the run with the big kids. Wish us luck!!

This is what my setup looks like:

And this is where I sit with them outside to watch the big kids play:

 

[ChickieChickieMama]

I'd recommend you bring them outside as soon as possible in their small cage if you can and bring the whole thing into your coop as a sort of field trip to the zoo for them to get used to one another. Sort of like when high school kids go to visit their college campuses haha.