Introducing 2 6 week old silkies with 10 5 week olds.

[BayAreaMike408]

I purchased 10 day old sexed female chicks that are now 5 weeks old. My wife wanted two silkies which we purchased and will have delivered next Tuesday. The silkies are slightly older, about 6 weeks old. Due to colder temps outside (high 30s to low 40s) i setup a transition coop in the garage. The existing 10 have only spent a few nights there (previously in chick brooder in laundry room). This is a pic of the garage brooder and we plan to keep them here for another 2-3 weeks before they transition to their outside coop. There are no older birds and we are first time chick owners.

At this age, is it safe to introduce the two new silkies with the group? The silkies will be about a week older, but obviously a bit smaller than some of them. So far all the chicks are handled regularly, are people friendly, and we haven’t had any aggression issues.

 

[Smileybans]

I would say do the look but don’t touch method before just putting them into the same brooder. That means having the silkies in a separate cage where the chicks you already have can see them but not peck at them. The new chicks will be lower on the pecking order and are more likely to get bullied.
Where are you getting the new birds from? Usually you want to quarantine new birds from the main flock before introductions. There’s an article on here about it. Here’s the link. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...nderestimated-part-of-raising-chickens.67097/

 

[LadiesAndJane]

The age difference is not significant and they are still pretty young. I have 2 week old chicks with month old chicks, no problems at all. Important thing is to quarantine the newbies for at least 2 weeks to ensure they do not have any diseases. Check them over for mites and other infestations and treat if needed before introducing them to each other. Good luck!

 

[BayAreaMike408]

Thanks for the advice. I’m getting them from Amber Waves. I’ve read she is very reputable and after doing a lot of online searching, I haven’t found any significant negative reviews. No complaints on her BBB page either.

Is quarantining still recommended when purchasing from a reputable source like her?

 

[rosemarythyme]

It's up to you. I'd rather introduce them now so they're much more likely to accept each other without fuss (knowing that there's a disease risk), than wait and make for a more difficult integration especially if you do not have space and procedures in place to do a proper quarantine.

If you can't meet this level of quarantine: https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...nderestimated-part-of-raising-chickens.67097/ there'll be some level of cross contamination anyhow, making quarantine a moot point.

 

[Smileybans]

Thanks for the advice. I’m getting them from Amber Waves. I’ve read she is very reputable and after doing a lot of online searching, I haven’t found any significant negative reviews. No complaints on her BBB page either.

Is quarantining still recommended when purchasing from a reputable source like her?

Quarantining is always recommended. Like @rosemarythyme says if you can’t quarantine then some level of contamination is possible. But if you feel okay with introducing them right away then that’s okay too. I had read about the look but don’t touch method and it has worked for me and my chicks. Especially with my 22 week old roo. He’s a rough guy with the newbies, even if they were his age, and I can’t throw new babes in with him. But I think it’s mostly because he’s a he.
The way I quarantined my birds was by following as closely as possible to the link that was posted. I got my birds from Craigslist though so always best to hard quarantine those birds.

 

[dougieee]

From experience chicks up to 14 odd weeks seem to be just one homogenous tribe, they will except other chicks of any age and ive never seen any bullying, the hens tend to establish a gentler pecking order and the roos just fall into a natural dominance order as they get older within the brood. Its weird as once they are older and this order is established they can be quite rough with newbies