Integrating 5 week olds - quarantine question

[Aeropennchick]

Hi everyone!

I have 8 five and a half week old babies, and just got 3 chicks that are about the same age and size. I was able to visit the home of the babies and see the chicks and the parents and the conditions. The woman I bought them from was very helpful to me as a first time chicken owner with regard to worming schedules and treatments, and showed me which products she buys.

The chicks I bought were kept in a brooding area separate from the adult birds (of course) and besides being a little cramped because they were getting big, there was no evidence of anyone being sick at the whole place.

My question is, do I still need to quarantine them for a whole month? It seems excessive to me, and I thought this more applied to adult birds where you were unsure of their origins. I added a pair of one month old silkies to my feed store chicks without quarantine, because I didn't know I was supposed to, and things have been fine but I want to do what is safest.

So how long would you keep them separate? Right now the new chicks are fenced off in one section of the run that the other chicks have been using.

 

[feathers_3]

I would give them about a week since everything seemed to be good at their old home, just as a precaution. I'm going to have to introduce my 3 week olds to my 1 year olds, after they are bigger of course, and I'm not sure how I should go about doing that either since I have a pretty aggressive rooster.