Integrating New Chicks?

[Crisses]

I have 9 incubated bantam chicks born on/about Memorial Day (2+ weeks old). They're pretty advanced in their development from what I can tell -- neck & head feathers coming in, they fly to the top of a roost or the top of the draft cardboard in their cage (about 12-14 inches high), and the males are showing male behaviors (that I can even tell which are probably males, never having chickens before, is already telling...). They had wing feathers at 1 week! I thought that was pretty quick, and from pics I see of other chicks, they're still fluffballs at that age...

Anyway, I'm only going to have 4 pullets -- so I'm thinking of adding another group to the brood before they're too old. Someone nearby has 1 week old unsexed bantam (japanese black-tail) chicks born last thursday. If I remove the boys from the brooder and add in some 1 week old chicks, would that be OK? I know they'll have to go through the whole pecking-order thing, but the girls don't seem to have as much of a pecking order established yet as the boys have been working out....I'm sure the cockeral on the top of the heap will definitely have to go before I introduce any more birds to the flock....

Any advice? I've never raised chickens before. Do I have to worry as much about quarantine with 1 week old chicks, or is my primary concern keeping an eye on how the chicks behave with each other?

Another choice is incubating another batch of chicks from eggs -- in which case the new batch would be about 6 weeks younger (instead of 1.5 weeks), and would be in the brooder when the older batch is out in the coop....

 

[HEChicken]

It sounds like they are progressing right on schedule. The wing feathers usually start to appear when they are only a few days old and other feathering follows shortly thereafter - it is really pretty amazing how quickly they transform from a fluff ball to a feathered out chicken!

Generally it is not a good idea to integrate groups of chicks of such different ages. There are two factors that would make this inadvisable. First is the size difference. Even if you put two groups into a "neutral" place, the older, larger chicks, would tend to pick on the smaller, younger group. The second is territory. If you try to add a second group of chicks, even of the same size, to a group that already calls a particular place "home", the home group will pick on the newbies. Here you have both factors - the original group is older and bigger AND calls the brooder home, so the results of adding new week-old chicks to that brooder could be devastating.

Keep in mind that behavior is not a good indicator of gender at this age. Both sexes will chest bump to determine dominance. The only behavior I would really take to indicate gender at this age would be seeing a boy trying to crow! The things to be watching for are combs that are getting pink. To some extent, very large burly legs/feet often indicate a boy, but I wouldn't go just by that - I once had a GLW pullet I was convinced was a roo as a youngster, because of her enormous feet.

 

[Snow mom]

Keep in mind that behavior is not a good indicator of gender at this age. Both sexes will chest bump to determine dominance. The only behavior I would really take to indicate gender at this age would be seeing a boy trying to crow! The things to be watching for are combs that are getting pink. To some extent, very large burly legs/feet often indicate a boy, but I wouldn't go just by that - I once had a GLW pullet I was convinced was a roo as a youngster, because of her enormous feet.

I'm glad to read this. I read the OP yesterday and thought that behavior wouldn't indicate sex yet--then I saw that two of my chicks are running around jumping on everyone and being straight run bantams I started to worry. My chicks are also hatched around Memorial day so I guess we'll keep watching for comb development and worry less about the rowdy behavior

 

[Crisses]

At 4 1/2 weeks, 2 of the ones I thought were cockerels (I thought I had 3...) are developing redder combs -- and the king of the pack, blonde colored all-over, has some black tail feathers coming in -- most specifically 2 that were pretty prominent at the top of her tail.... I'm still not counting cockerels before they crow, but they're at least tomboys These 2 chest-bump, hackles raised, play baby-sitter/herder to the rest, are ravenous eaters, and peck others when they think they're out-of-line. It's still a draw which one -- the king or the prince -- would emerge victorious in their tomboy battling, because sometimes the king backs down to the prince.... but I'll still call them girls, in case they're just pretending they're boys, or the power of suggestion helps them decide on their gender in this quantum gender assignment game....

Meanwhile, Chick TV is the most amusing show playing....