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I have three ISA Brown pullets that are three weeks old and today I picked up five Rhode Island Reds. We have two coops but I was wondering when a good time would be to integrate them into the same area or if that's a good idea at all. Right now the Reds are inside under a heat lamp while the ISA's are outside in the coop with a heat lamp as well, so they are separated for now.
I can't help you, but when Nell67 comes around she probably can. I think she is a chicken whisperer.
how old are the RIR's?? is there a way to separate them inside the same coop,just to reduce the amount of electricity you are using for the same purpose, maybe a small cage or box for the RIR's until they are a week or two old. how much bigger are the Isa's? three weeks doesn't sound like a lot, but it can make a huge difference in the size of baby chicks.
You don't really have to worry about diseases at this age (unless you bought them from a farm?) All the Farm stores get their chicks from certified disease free hatcheries, but individual farmers selling their hatch-lings may or may not have their flock tested for disease.
The biggest thing you would have to worry about by integrating them would be placing new hatch-lings with much older chicks and being bullied by the bigger chicks. I like to use a cage that allows the chicks to see and get used to each other so when they are put in together there is less likely to be bullying from the bigger chicks.
Watch your chicks daily for any signs of injury because chickens f all sizes will pick (peck) on an injury on another bird and can eventually kill the injured bird. It's kind of a birds instinct to rid the flock of any injured, sick,weak bird so any injury you may notice you would want to remove that bird to a safer location out of the coop and treat it until the injury has healed..
Make sure that your coop is predator proof,coon, possum, mink, rats, skunks, foxes and coyote among other predators will find a way in if the coop isn't protected all the way around the bottom and Hawks, owls, and other birds of prey as well as coons and possum, rats and mink will climb over fencing and take out your birds.