Getting chicks and then hens?

[cake]

Hi folks,

We are getting our coop set up this week and getting our chickens very soon (hopefully!). I plan on getting some laying hens from my sister, who has a lovely flock of nearly 50. I also want to get some silkies. I found someone with 2-week silkie chicks for sale, and I'm strongly considering that. But, I'm not sure how to go about bringing home 2 different sets of chickens.

1- Bring home the laying hens first and get them acclimated in the coop, while keeping the silkie chicks in the house, in an incubator (I would have to set up an incubator in the house, which is something I'd rather avoid)

2- Bring home the silkies first and let them stay in the coop (I believe I would need a heat lamp for nighttime--current temps here are 80-90 during the day and 70-75 at night) and then introduce the laying hens later. How soon could I introduce the hens? Would I have to segregate the groups for some period? Is it necessary to quarantine incoming chickens even if they're coming from my sister's healthy flock?

3- Something else?

Thanks!

 

[Brandi Leigh]

How big/ what breed are your laying hens? If they are a large breed you might have problems integrating your silkies. They might get picked on pretty bad. Make sure you have a lot of room for the silkies to get away and hide from the big hens.

 

[chickbythebay]

I keep my silkies in a different coop from my other breed. Silkies like to sleep on the ground huddled up together and other breeds like to roost. I have seen some silkies that roost on this site, but mine do not. If they were to sleep on the ground under roosting hens, they would get pooped on. So I would watch for that. Maybe someone else will have more advice on the other stuff.

 

[cake]

I don't know what breed the laying hens are. They are full size, but they are super friendly girls. I definitely don't want the silkies getting picked on...

 

[aggiemae]

I don't know what breed the laying hens are. They are full size, but they are super friendly girls. I definitely don't want the silkies getting picked on...

Being sweet in an established flock doesn't always translate to getting along with new hens. Chicks need to be kept separate until the chicks are at least 10 weeks old hen introduced through a fence and then being well supervised you can try putting them together into a large area with plenty of hiding places

If the silkies are lots smaller than the hens they might have to be separated longer or always.