Two ages and no way to separate.

[Dschwartz]

I recently took in 6 younger chickens that needed a home. Someone though they would be a cute gift, and we all know how that generally goes. You need to be prepared for this. I am just starting out myself, I wanted to raise chickens and had bought some reds from TSC. They are now 7 weeks and the new, inherited chickens are about 3 weeks younger. If I partition the coop and run, I do not feel there will be enough room for either set of chickens. All of the other threads talked about multiple coops and 4 weeks of time next to each other and such. I do not have that luxury? I am also working real hard to get my current chickens to use the roost and not use the nest boxes. I do not want to mess that up. Any suggestions for a quick integration?

 

[donrae]

Just put them all in together at night. Mixing ages in not near the big deal when they're all this young. Make sure there is plenty of space, hiding places for the littles and you should be good to go. Do you have heat in the coop for the littles the next few weeks at night?

 

[Dschwartz]

I do have a heat lamp in the coop. It is midnight and still 68 outside, so not quite as big of a deal as it could be. The reds that I have are probably twice their size, so that is why I worried. I figured worst case scenario, I could let the big girls out in the run during the day and keep the little ones in the coop. It is not getting too hot in the coop, and the coop is elevated so they can use the underneath as part of their run so there is shade for everyone too.

 

[aart]

I took a medium dog crate, removed the door and added a section of 2x4 fencing with a corner peeled back so the littlers could have a refuge, and put it right in the coop. There's food and water in there for them and it only took a couple weeks before they were pretty much always mixing with the olders...they also all have access to the same run with room to run away when needed. I have 3 age groups 5wks, 9wks, and 11wks. The older 2 groups had already been intergrated in a temporary day pen and separate brooders at night.