Splitting chicks into two different brooders, to integrate again later?

[mysterychick]

First of all, thanks for the amazing wealth of info shared on this board! I have read and learned a ton.

My question is that we have 10 birds who are all only a week old and all together in a brooder. As they grow, I can't think of an alternative than to have two brooders and to split them. We will be having them live as one flock though in their eventual coop and run. Would it be unwise to split them? And if it is ok to split them, should we keep a mixture in each brooder (that is FS and bantams) or should we divide by breed?

And - second part of this question is that we have 4 more birds coming in April (we had some of our first delivery not make it and really wanted to replace them but had t wait for stock). How on earth do we handle this? Another separate brooder for the new chicks and then we slowly integrate later? The bigger chicks will only be 4 1/2 weeks old when the extras arrive. The extras are 2 bantams, a Polish and a Sultan, so are all birds who are likely to be lower on the pecking order, if that matters at all.

Thanks a ton for any and all advice!

 

[donrae]

I would just get a larger brooder. My favorite is two XL cardboard boxes taped together side by side with a chick door cut between them. Heat lamp in one box, feed and water in the other. This gives more space and also gives a separation, a break in line of sight that can be more helpful than more space. You can find large cardboard boxes fairly easy--appliance boxes, melon boxes, things like that.

Depending on when your second batch comes in, I'd brood them all together. I've had up to a 4 week age difference in the brooder with no issues. Just make sure you've got lots of space so they can get away from each other. If you do chose to brood the littles separate, I'd put them all together no later than 3ish weeks of age on the littles.

 

[mysterychick]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm just concerned because we have two cats who are quite obsessively interested in these chicks and have felt as though the plastic bins with a wire/wood lid my hubby rigged up is safer. He can easily make another of those but I'm not sure about the sturdiness of the cardboard. We'll go look for some boxes tomorrow as maybe there will be something really sturdy.

If we do split though, will we mess with flock politics at this age???

I also appreciate the input about integrating the new babes when they arrive.