When to allow age gap chicks to mix?

[MasterofNone]

Just for fun addition... Tonight when we fed their fermented feed, all the gals and boy circled around together like old friends to scarf down the yummies. Not a single hen pecked anyone. It was lovely.

 

[Nat_R]

saphire gems 6wks and starlight green eggers 4wk sleep together in the coop but once they're let out in the yard they split up. They were put together two weeks ago

 

[Broxi]

I put my two sets of babies together two weeks ago. The Salmon Faverolles were 10 weeks and the rest were 5 weeks. The Faverolles seem be slower growing than the others, so they were close in size. There wasn't any problems at all. Might have helped that the two Australorps are very precocious and bold. Really friendly too. I handled the younger ones a lot more than I've ever handled my babies and it's made them very confident. The Faverolles I got at 5 weeks old and they weren't handled much, so they remain a bit more skittish to handling.

I may have also won the coin toss with my St run Buff Orpington Bruno. It's looking like it's a pullet at 7 weeks. They will keep the name Bruno regardless...We don't talk about Bruno!

 

[MasterofNone]

Om goodness, I keep forgetting pics! This one was last night after dark so its a bit tough to see. Hopefully it uploaded.

 

[MasterofNone]

It doesn't look like I succeeded. Trying again...

 

[MasterofNone]

And here's one from yesterday morning with everyone happily mingling together in their brand new run (and a kitten on the boulder outside dreaming of 'playing' with the chicks).

 

[Happy hen lover]

And here's one from yesterday morning with everyone happily mingling together in their brand new run (and a kitten on the boulder outside dreaming of 'playing' with the chicks).

I loved reading your animated stories of the experiences of integration, I too am in that stage.
I'm so glad you succeeded in your integration.
I have 3 Smokey Pearl 8 week olds I've integrated with big hens after some human thunking by my hubby and me they all get along .. mostly. Having several feeders and waterers helps too. Those are in coop and run now.
Then there's the panic buying birds the "middle ones" now at 6 weeks old. I bought these wanting another breed in my flock and well you know 1 turns to 4 (minimum) cause dumb kid told me they're would be no more chicks after May 1st! ( I think he meant JUNE 1st) anyway they were supposed to be California white hens so that bunch is called "Dots crew" as I only ended up with one Calif. White (the queen and sweetie of that group) and rest are leghorns prolly. I really didn't want white egg layers but it added color to mixed flock and my egg basket.

Well I've always wanted colored egg layers but don't want any more hybrids so my one hen went broody and in my chicken math brain I thought if we got some baby chicks from other farm store in town that would break her she would raise them and all would live happily ever after blah blah blah.! So here we go off to farm store this time with hubby in tow. Well he's a sucker for anything in baby form! (he never cared about birds till this time) he says oh look at those one with the cool stripes! and what do my husband wandering eyes appear ? Ameracaunas colored egg layers. Me thinks why those would do fine to put under broody hen!?, so I grab one color out of the bin then another then another and a couple turns to 4! What a dream that these would work under broody hen; either babies were too independent,? or she wasn't broody enough ? something didn't work. So I now have 3 groups of chicks when I only needed about 4-5 more hen additional. TOTAL

Hatch dates pearls 3-14, "Dots crew" 4-1 ( yes April fool's) then, (as my honey refers to them) THE babies he has become their broody 5-1.

Well this was kismet cause he now HE'S IN LOVE! Praying none are roosters so no culling. Lol
Sorry and Thank you for reading my ramblings, hope you enjoyed our mutual stories. Helen

The pearls.

Dots Crew ( she is bottom left)

The BABIES

 

[MasterofNone]

I loved reading your animated stories of the experiences of integration, I too am in that stage.
I'm so glad you succeeded in your integration.
I have 3 Smokey Pearl 8 week olds I've integrated with big hens after some human thunking by my hubby and me they all get along .. mostly. Having several feeders and waterers helps too. Those are in coop and run now.
Then there's the panic buying birds the "middle ones" now at 6 weeks old. I bought these wanting another breed in my flock and well you know 1 turns to 4 (minimum) cause dumb kid told me they're would be no more chicks after May 1st! ( I think he meant JUNE 1st) anyway they were supposed to be California white hens so that bunch is called "Dots crew" as I only ended up with one Calif. White (the queen and sweetie of that group) and rest are leghorns prolly. I really didn't want white egg layers but it added color to mixed flock and my egg basket.



Well this was kismet cause he now HE'S IN LOVE! Praying none are roosters so no culling. Lol
Sorry and Thank you for reading my ramblings, hope you enjoyed our mutual stories. Helen

View attachment 3117243
The pearls.
View attachment 3117248
Dots Crew ( she is bottom left)
View attachment 3117250
The BABIES

Oh my word, those smoky pearls are so pretty. And the wee babies . The very first of my babies that I named was Dottie, a little Barred Rock with pronounced white dots between her eyes and beak. She has been, by far, the sweetest, most adventurous, and clever of all 19 of the youngins. And almost instantly my favorite of that crew. It must be a good name!

I really enjoyed reading your stories too. I had no idea what I was missing out on all these years without chickens! And when I joined this forum, I just figured I would be able to learn from the experts. I didn't expect to have so much fun reading all the stories and checking out the chick pics! This is what everyone meant about beware of chicken math, I think. Because the list of breeds I want 'next time' is increasing exponentially every time I see others beautiful birds.

 

[Chipmunk Chicks]

I love this thread! I didn't realize how recent it was when I started my own about the same topic: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/mixing-chicks.1529891/#post-25789729

I love seeing all the big and little chickies getting along so well!

 

[YellowRoseFarm]

I think it's interesting that after they've been integrated, they still tend to stick to their own "flock." The Sapphire Plymouth Rocks and the Welbars huddle and dust bathe together while the Easter Eggers keep to themselves. At night, though, they all roost together.