2 week old silkies with 8 new chicks? HELP!!!

Hey folks,

Chicken math prevailed, and I ordered 4 silkies which will be here Friday, 3 days before my other chicks (3 speckled sussex, 3 golden comets, and 2 EEs). My question is, is it okay to brood them together, if the silkies are about 2 weeks old when the other chicks arrive? I figured it would be, because they are bantoms, but I wanted to ask the BYC community, since I'm new to this. Thanks.

I have read here several times that it's OK to mix chicks of different ages, as long as they are all under 4 weeks old. I've never tried it, though, more than a few days apart.

For me, I don't if they are more than a week apart. I had a bad experience recently. I had a single black silkie chick after 10 of my sussex eggs, and 10 of rir eggs hatched when I got the silkie chick it was only 2 days old. I put the silkie in my "one week" brooder, and the other 20 in my bigger brooder. After the silkie was a week old I placed it with the rest. No sooner did I put it down they were on the attack. They were pecking its face/beak, and running all over it. I tried to mediate the situation but they stayed at it. After a few minutes I realized that they weren't going to stop so I took the silkie out and placed it back in the other brooder. The next morning my silkie chick past. Im not 100sure percent sure if the stress, or injury is what killed it, but im sure it didn't help.

I would try it and see how they react this is the first time it has happened to me so there may have been sum wrong with the silkie b4 hand. Just watch them closely. If the play nice leave them if not remove them.

I was able to successfully add 2 - 2 day old chicks in with 6 2- week old chicks. I watched very closely for the first few hours and they seemed to ignore the little ones. The next day I found the 2 bitties snuggled up under the wings of a bigger chick. Since then, they truly go everywhere together - the little ones cry and cry when I let the big ones out in the yard, so I've started letting them all out. They are doing just fine together.

I've heard the general rule is within 2 weeks of age of each other as chicks - otherwise size and development is too different. Also, the longer groups are separate before combined, the more likely they'll develop a flock mentality vs. outsiders. So if you're going to do it, I'd do it sooner than later.

Silkies are 'typically' a more submissive breed, while RIRs are not. With 20 older and larger (i'm not sure from the above post how much older) vs. 1 younger bantam, that didn't turn out too well. Plus the silkie crest always seems to be of 'interest' and a vaulted skull can leave the brain more susceptible to injury.

WIth silkies as your older breed with younger LF, I'd say go for it and watch what happens. I've been mixing bantams of different ages for the last several weeks and have had no issues.

Good luck!

Great...thanks for the info everyone....I got the answer I've been looking for.