You are getting 5 chicks of the same breed? Are they normal large fowl chickens? Will they be more pets or for utility like eggs or meat? It all depends on how you use your flock. If you plan to add Silkies later I would recommend 2 Silkies at least and possibly 4 so the Silkies will have their own little flock. Large fowl will tend to pick on the smaller bantams. We never introduce new birds to a flock until they are 5 or 6 months old and full size before introducing slowly to an existing flock through a partition fence first. I am zoned for only 5 hens/no roos so can't have separate pens -- we need to keep our few chickens together so they must get along or they'll get re-homed.
Some owners have no trouble having Silkies w/ large fowl but I have not had such luck w/ my tiny flock. I have had to introduce smaller large fowl under 5-lbs of docile chicken breeds to get along w/ the Silkies. I have found Ameraucana and Breda to be very docile and kind around Silkies. Assertive drama divas like Marans and Leghorns I have had to re-home because they are too aggressive not only toward Silkies but even toward docile large fowl like Ameraucana and Breda. Since our flock is more pets than for eggs, we chose docile large fowl under 5-lbs -- it means the eggs are in the MED to LG range rather than JUMBO but we don't mind as long as the large fowl are decent layers and non-combative toward flockmates.
Our 2 Silkies are getting old and more broody rather than productive and have a forever home as pets so the other 3 hens in our flock have to be relied on for steady eggs. I stagger ages of chickens so that the layers don't get old all at the same time. This way we'll always have chickens producing eggs. The old Silkies give good-size eggs for bantams and a lot of them in a 3 or 4 week span and then they go broody and no eggs from them for weeks, sometimes months. Meanwhile we can depend on the docile larger fowl to be better about steady egg production except of course during molt or shorter winter daylight hours.
These pretty breeds were too assertive/aggressive toward our Silkies:
BUFF LEGHORN
BUFF LEGHORN
WHITE LEGHORN
CUCKOO MARANS & WHITE LEGHORN w/ a lone Silkie pullet hiding under chair
We re-homed the large fowl and got another Silkie companion for the lone Silkie pullet
These have been our most compatible docile breeds w/ Silkies:
Blue Wheaten Ameraucana
Cuckoo Breda w/ 2 old Silkies
Blue Wheaten Ameraucana, Blue Breda w/ 2 old Silkies
Blue Breda w/ 2 old Silkies
Show us pics of your 5 new chicks and let us know what breed and if they're pets or for eggs or ???
