AgeAge ranged Age ranged mix Baby chicks

[mandi100]

I did a search for this but I found a lot of information on older situations.

I have chicks that I got from a hatchery on wednesday. I'm imagining they were born on Monday most likely. Possibly Sunday I suppose. I have had 3 incubator chicks hatch this morning. (This is a first for me) I'm waiting for them to dry off and stabilize. I have a little mini Brooder going on over here but it seems crazy to me to have 50 Hatchery chicks that are less than a week old separate from my little in-house chicks. Does it seem reasonable to be able to introduce these one day olds to the 5-day-olds? Is that a close enough age range?

I do have a Broody hen but she has never been a mama and she's in with the rest of the birds so I don't know if she would protect the littles or not.

Is been a wild week on many fronts!

 

[nuthatched]

Yep, they'll mix fine.

 

[catsndogs4us]

Yes they should do just fine. I've had an age gap up to two weeks and that has worked with zero issues. The newer ones learn and seem comforted from the slightly older ones.

 

[mandi100]

Yep, they'll mix fine.

Any guidance on the age range where this would be still acceptable? I saw a couple things that said anything less than 2 weeks but then I saw some stuff saying not even that long. It's a lot of mixed information out there

 

[nuthatched]

Any guidance on the age range where this would be still acceptable? I saw a couple things that said anything less than 2 weeks but then I saw some stuff saying not even that long. It's a lot of mixed information out there

2 weeks is as about as far as you want when one set is new babies, after that, it not as strict. You just don't want new babies being squished by bigger ones.

 

[catsndogs4us]

Remembering back to my 2018 chicks the gap was right at 2 weeks. We'd hatched a small group then added 4 more day old chicks from a breeder. We watched them very carefully for the first couple days just in case, no issues at all. Had the heat plate set at a good angle for all.

I'll have a similar gap this year. We just purchased chicks 2 days ago (hatch date the 9th). The classroom hatch chicks that will eventually join them have an expected hatch date of the 21st. The class chicks will stay in the class for several days so the two groups won't merge until the youngers are around a week old. Again I'll watch and be ready to change things and have two side by side brooders for a time if it doesn't go well.

 

[Lil Country]

From my experience this year, after getting varies ages at different times. 2 weeks has been okay for mine. In one brooder right now, I have 2 week old, 1 week olds and now just added 2-3 day olds. I’m keeping an eye on them, but so far so good! My 3 week olds are separate, I’m more than ready for my coop to be done and get those outside!