Swedish Flower Hens - both female? One of each?

[hdowden]

mine are bantams and i have them outside today with no heat lamp but its 79 here although it feels hotter. the other 2 days they have been outside i had a heat lamp on them and it was in the 60's and i even left them out till it got dark and dropped to the 50's, again they had a heat lamp so they stayed warm. i bring them in each night but i wont let them stay ouside without a heat lamp when its low 70's (73) or colder. they were hatched on nov 8th so they are about 5 weeks and a few days if my calculations are correct. they wont be going into the flock until they around 5-6 months old.

 

[srslychickning]

Great to know, thanks. Mine were born November 2 or 3, so only a week older. I will keep them in! I have been leaving their heat lamp off for the past week in the house, where it's between 67 & 72 all the time (thermostat is on a timer) and they seem fine, but at night I turn it on to make sure they stay warm. They are doing fine, and if it ain't broke.......don't put them outside. haha.

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

I'd say unknown for the first and definite cockerel on the 2nd. These birds are pretty easy to determine at a very young age. Go check out pics on the SFH thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=375288&p=58

Both are very pretty birds.

 

[123ChickieLou]

Quote:
Are you going to integrate them into a full grown flock?! NO! Huge no-no! Unless you want dead chicks... you cannot integrate birds until they are the same size! This means no integration until they're at least 6 months old. They will be bullied, feather picked, terrorized, and not allowed to walk around or eat. There's a 70% chance they'll probably killed... I know, because I learned the hard way. I lost two chicks to my ignorance and trying to integrate them early (a month older than yours). The other 8 were terrorized - backed into a corner and attacked. They never left that corner unless momma came to the rescue and literally kicked the other hens out of the house so they could eat and drink. The last thing you want to walk out to is a precious chick laying dead, half eaten by the adult birds or one still walking around with its bones picked clean or worse...

I would not let them go outside yet, unless you have a completely enclosed coop for them to stay in that's draft free and has a source of heat/light in it.

See my above comments... he will be bullied anyway but if you integrate with a full grown flock, they'll end up dead.

I put my two five-week-old WS's out in their coop for the first time, over night, with no light and no additional heat except a blue tarp draped over the front, and it got to 30F that night. Believe it or not, they were fine.

Oh, and for good measure I threw in my large BO hen with them. She might have pecked once or twice but they settled down and all were fine and have been since. The BO sometimes decides to roost elsewhere so 50% of the time its just the two WS's (one of which I supspect is a roo) in the coop/clutch.

Admittedly, I don't have "experience" per say but I can tell you I think the five weekers will be just fine if you put them out now while the temps are pretty mild. They'll have time to adjust and from what I understand will be better off in the long run.

My four new chicks are out in a 6x6 run in daytime. They're where the others can't get to them so no one gets hurt. But I want them out there where they can all see each other as much as possible before I turn them loose together. I'll do that in a few more weeks when they're bigger. When I put the little ones out this morning, the suspected roo charged through the opening and snatched one up by the back of its neck and tried to walk off with it. The other WS pretty much ignored them.

When its time to remove the bariers and let everyone into full contact with the run of the backyard, I will be home and checking on them quite often. They're all right outside my backdoor and I can see a lot from my back window too. Because of the layout and circumstances and my proximity to them, I am comfortable doing it tis way. I wouldn't just throw them all in an enclosed coop/run together at once and leave for vacation, I'd want to be home to watch how things go when they are all introduced without bariers.

Sorry, I have no experience with rooster integration so I can't say anything there. I'll be reading to see what others have to say on that.

Go look through the "20 or more" thread, good stuff there.