Buying Baby Chicks

[Chickenlady002]

Hello! I am hatching one silkie egg, and its development seems to be getting along well, based on what I can see in the candling. I am going to purchase some more bantams so that it has friends to grow up with, but I don't know when I should get them. Would it be better to have some chicks before it hatches, or should I wait until it is a few days old. I'm worried that it will be too weak when she first hatches to have other older birds around her.

 

[azygous]

I have to assume you'll be brooding these chicks yourself, as opposed to a broody hen. You have more leeway with the former.

Do you have a plan on procurement of the chicks? Feed store? Private breeder? Mail order? Be aware that hatcheries ship chicks, normally, the day they hatch. They often spend one to three days in transit to their shipping destination unless you can buy them from the source the day they hatch.

The bottom line is that anytime during that first week will be just fine to add your newly hatched chick to the new brood. You have a bit of wiggle room, but you'd best secure your ordered chicks somehow as chicks seem to be the new toilet paper and are in insane demand.