Staggering chick-acquisition over a few weeks

[Skellington]

Hi there! I'm looking at getting my first chickens this April, from our local farm store. They just announced their chick schedule, and to get the pretty variety-pack I'm hoping for I'll have to buy two one week, one the next, and two the third week. The farm store staff said that as long as they were within three weeks of age, I shouldn't have trouble, but I wondered about introducing a loner. Am I likely to have problems if I add one chick to two?

(The coop and run I'm building should be fine with six, but five is the legal limit in my town. I know not all chicks make it, but if I started with six Murphy's law would give me an illegal number of chickens).

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Over the first few weeks, there shouldn't be any problem given sufficient space. They haven't established a pecking order yet.

 

[Skellington]

Excellent, thank you!

 

[Joeschooks]

Over the first few weeks, there shouldn't be any problem given sufficient space. They haven't established a pecking order yet.

X2
I’ve never had a problem introducing chicks to one another provided they are of a similar age and size. Good luck with your chicks!

 

[N F C]

That's really great your farm store will let you buy small quantities like that. Ours has a 6 chick minimum unfortunately.

What breeds are you planning on getting?

 

[Skellington]

It's an urban farm store, so they have lots of customers that have very small flocks and don't live far from the store (so no long car trip to worry about between store and brooder). I'd guess that's why. They get in six or seven different breeds every Friday for much of the year. In one three week span in April, I can get all my favorites!

- black copper marans
- Gold-laced Wyandotte
- buff orpington
- barnevelder
- #5 is still being debated. Cream legbar, easter egger, blue-laced red wyandotte, or second barnevelder... barnevelders are my favorite, so having two 'just in case' would be great. Cream legbar is the next contender -- heard god stories about character and egg color -- but conflicting stories about whether they're too flighty for a first-time-chicken-haver.

I'm an artist and graphic designer, so while I did a lot of research to make sure my selection would be okay in my climate and weren't known for difficulty/flightiness, I totally used color aesthetics as the final deciding factor.

 

[N F C]

Nice choices!