Almost 5 week old chicks.....

[valreegrl]

My chicks are just about 5 weeks old.
We have 2 RIRs and 2 Delawares, all pullets

hopefully

My questions are:

They are still indoors, in a modified dog crate that is fairly large.
Just the last couple days, the smallest chick (one of the Delawares) has been picking at the others. Not so much her "sister" but the RIRs.
I have changed their light to a red bulb, and a blue bulb and neither have helped.
Their current light is a red bulb that I leave on during the day (if it's cool) and turn it off at night.
At night, they are all together sleeping.
Any ideas?

The coop should be completed this weekend and which point they will be moving outside, but I am wondering if I should slowly acclimate them to the outdoors first rather then tossing them out completely?

Also, I have two Silkie chicks coming this weekend. We will again be setting up the small brooder and after a few weeks moving them to the larger cage indoors.

However, how should I introduce them to the older chicks, since there will be about a 5 week difference?

Should I partition the coop and give the Silkies their own space in the beginning?

The coop is about 24 square feet for 6 birds.

Thanks so much! And I have to say....I love this forum and all the information I have been picking up here!

 

[gumpsgirl]

First off, picking usually happens when birds are overcrowded. What are the temps. like there during the daytime now? If they are at least in the 70's, I would make them a place where they could go outdoors during the day. They would be start getting acclimated to being outside that way and would have more room to help avoid the picking issue, which needs to be addressed fairly quickly.

As far as adding Silkie chicks to the bunch goes, with that age difference, it would definitely be best to keep the two different age groups separated. I don't mix any chicks into the rest of my flock until they are 18 wks. old. That way the size difference isn't an issue anymore, which might still be because of the standards and the bantams. I have a coop for my standard sized chickens and then a separate coop for my bantams, so I don't know exactly how it will go adding Silkies in with your larger birds. Someone else here on BYC might be more fit to answer that question.

Good luck finishing up the coop this weekend! I know your chicks will love all of their new space.