Big day for the little Silkies tomorrow. Supervised visitation with the flock! Their heating pad has been turned down to 2 for a couple of days and they don't even seem to notice. So tomorrow I'll let all the Bigs and the Littles outside, close the run, and open the portal doors on the brooder pen. After they've had a little time to explore and learn where the portal doors so they can escape any unwanted attentions of others, the run door will be opened and the Tiny's will be able to get as adventurous as they want.
If this follows the usual pattern, the older chicks will head immediately to the brooder, but they've gotten so big they won't fit through portals. Frankly I'm a little more concerned about them than I am about the adults - the adults been through this process many times before so they usually just look, peck if a chick gets too close, then ignore them. But the older chicks (Yokel and Wilbur, my first ever home hatched chicks, and the other 6 we bought to keep them company are about 8 weeks old and Sluff, the NN hiding in an Australorp shell, is around 5 weeks. The Silkies and the other 8 from MPC, are 3 weeks. Boy, time flies!! I want to have full integration in another 4 or 5 days to simplify chicken care when Ken, Katie and I leave town for 10 days next week. Should be no problem...never have had an integration issue doing it this way. Wish us luck!
I'd give him 24 hours from the time of pipping before you intervene.
