When can I put my babies with my babies?

[christy7981]

Ok putting my two day old chicks in with my two 4 week old cuckoo's, one 3 week old Bantam, and one 3 week old Bantam roo wasn't such a good idea. Crazy. One of my cuckoo's picked up the two day old leghorn and threw her! When can I put the babies in with the babies? Smh

 

[naf_appaz]

Probably best to keep separated until the leghorns catch up in size to your bantams. You could try separating the one brooder but the young'ns need to be considerably warmer than the older ones. 1st week chicks need 95 degree temp...then drop temp (raise heater) every week about 5 degrees is the rule of thumb, once all of them no longer need to be under the lamp you still need to be careful putting them together. Best bet is to keep them separated by hardware cloth or chicken wire so they can see each other but not pick on each other for awhile.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I agree you need to keep them separate a long time for the leghorns to catch up.

That being said I think you will need bigger brooders. They need room to get totally out from under the heat.

Can you make a brooder that is 3'x8' and divided down the middle making basically 2 sections that are 3x4 with wire dividing them? That would allow them to get very close without touching each other.

I think you will have at least 6 weeks of keeping them separate.

 

[Flock In Texas]

You could try a Mama Heating Pad inside a 5 gallon bucket. They can go inside for warmth and toughen up a little bit outside the bucket, especially if you live in the South. We have lows around 80 every night.