Tips on caring for a single bantam baby chick….in a flock of full sized chicks

[carlaashdown]

Chicken math got me, and I have ended up with two groups of baby chicks.

First group is 3.5 weeks old and second group is about 1.5 weeks. I ended up getting the second group after a trip to a local farm store for feed. They had Lavender Orpington chicks. I told hubby the next day, and he said to go back and get them so I could integrate them in with the other chicks. When I got to the store that morning, they’d just gotten a shipment of day old Speckled Sussex. So I got two of each.
I get them home and realize one of the SS is super tiny, like less than half the size of the others (Like maybe 2 inches long). She is now a week and a half old. She’s growing fine, feathering at the same rate as the others, active, normal behavior, eating/drinking a lot, and feisty. She’s just tiny - less than half the size of the other SS. I suspect she may be a bantam

So my plan was to integrate them with the other chick group next week (they’d be 2 and 4 weeks) and move them all out to the coop (in the brooder area separated from the big chickens). I was hoping to not have to integrate 3 groups of chickens together - CHAOS…. BUT I don't feel good about putting this tiny chick in with the crazy 4 week olds.

The only thing I can think to do is to put a wire divider between the two groups so they can see each other but not intermingle.

Any other Suggestions? Tips on caring for a single bantam within a flock of full sized chicks and chickens?

 

[sourland]

Hopefully she is a bantam and not a chick exhibiting 'failure to thrive'. I would integrate her along with her brooder mates - and monitor closely. Waiting until later and trying to integrate her alone will be more difficult.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hopefully she is a bantam and not a chick exhibiting 'failure to thrive'. I would integrate her along with her brooder mates - and monitor closely. Waiting until later and trying to integrate her alone will be more difficult.

 

[carlaashdown]

Hopefully she is a bantam and not a chick exhibiting 'failure to thrive'. I would integrate her along with her brooder mates - and monitor closely. Waiting until later and trying to integrate her alone will be more difficult.

She was half their size at 2 days old. She’s doubled in size in the last week and is growing at the same rate as the others…she’s just still half their size.
She either a runt or bantam, but not failure to thrive. She’s thriving, just smaller