Younger chicks with older chicks?

[coffeemama]

I am going to have some babies hatch out in a week and a half or so. Then I'm going to put some more eggs in the incubator. The chicks will be about 3 weeks apart in age. I know I can't put day/week old chicks in with month old chicks, but when can I mix them together?

 

[ebonykawai]

I'll have the same issue, mine will be 2 weeks apart. I was going to put them all together when the younger ones are a week old. I have two brooders so I'm going to move the older ones in with the younger ones so there's no major territorial stuff going on. I figure the week olds won't be big enough to kick the older one's butts, lol.

 

[BaronRenfrew]

Mixing ages is not a big deal as long as the youngest ones are strong enough, maybe at two weeks old.

 

[Rafter 7 Paint Horses]

I don't know how y'all can mix ages and it works.

I can only put baby chicks together if they were hatched within 1 week of each other.

If I try to mix any other ages, they start dying.
All the old-timers tell me not to mix ages of chicks, until they are fully feathered.

I'm glad y'all can do this. I wouldn't have to have so many different pens if I could mix them.

Jean

 

[sclanimals]

I mix mine up to two weeks apart. But I have chicks hatching everyday so there are so many mixed up in there. We haven't had a problem so far.

 

[YoungChickenOwner]

I have had similar issues...what i did was once the younger chicks were (for the most part) all featherd out, around 3-4 weeks. I mixed them with the older ones. The younger the better, once they get older (the males especially) become territorial around 8-10 weeks.

Another hint to doing this is adding them in and watching very closely for about 30 minutes to see how they treat eachother....

after awhile there one big happy family!

 

[coffeemama]

I figured I would wait until they were feathered out. I will be selling a bunch of them anyway. Thanks all!