[newatthis]

Help needed please, i have 6 chicks in a large cage thing, and i have 12 eggs in the incie, here's the question,
can i put the chicks in that are due to hatch tuesday in with 3 week old chicks or would i need to keep them apart???
please please help,
can i put them in a box in side the cage and then place the heat lamp over both so they can share the heat??

thankyou in advance..

[newatthis]

sorry Joyfull, i did it again, wrong place again, thankyou for moving it

[Spana]

I wouldn't put them in together but if you only have the one lamp try the separate box method .  You'll soon see if its going to work but it will only do as a short term arrangement.
You will have a lot of chicks under one lamp so you'll have to make sure they don't get chilled.
Have you got a plan B ready

[GrannieAnnie]

I know not quite the same as yours, but I hatched had 3 chicks here that were a week older than the other 20, but I didn't put them together until the little ones were nearly 2 weeks old.

Where is your brooder box.  Is there room for a box inside the cage?  The heat lamp may be big enough for the 2 lots.  Try it, you'll soon find out if they are too cold, they'll all huddle together for warmth, but its really cheap to make a small lamp for the new ones.

I got a small metal lampshade from Wilkos, a cable and lampholder and a red fireglow bulb.  that's warm enough to keep 12 chicks warm indoors.

Hope they all do well!!!

[massa]

im by no means an expert but can share my own experience, i tried to hatch my first lot of eggs and only got one chick and felt sorry for it so arranged to get some day olds, by the time i got any my chick was 2 weeks old, i introduced 9 day olds to my one chick and they got along fine jus one is bigger than the rest! (mine were quail chicks not sure if it makes any difference or not but i think quail are abit more nuts) hope this may help.

[newatthis]

hi thankyou so much for the advice, the chicks that i have at the min will be 3 weeks old when the other lot hatch, i have 12 eggs in there and it looks like all could hatch but you never know with these things, but i can get a cardboad box and put it in the cage (which is a indoor rabbit cage, 3ft long by 2ft wide) with wire top, the heat lamp just sits on top of the wire, so far the 1's in there at the min dont sleep under the lamp more like to the side, they seem happy running around play fighting thing they do as chicks, oh there is 6 chicks in there at the min...

[Sassy]

If you do one box inside the brooder for the babies you will need to make sure that the young ones can get enough heat and away from the heat as required. The younger ones are likely to need more heat than the 3 week old ones.