- Apr 19, 2014
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Hi a newbie here 8 baby chick-lets that will be 5 weeks old this coming Sunday the18th. I keep reading and reading when to introduce
them to our (gifted to us) 2 full grown sweet as can be Plymouth rocks? We asked at the feed store and one person said 5 weeks,
another 4 weeks and still another 8 weeks. Our coup is about 12 by 12 and 8ft tall with 8 boxes for egg laying, 2 roosts and an old
wooden ladder leaned against a wall that the girls seem to like. They have a fenced in run about 12 ft by 20 ft long outside. But the
height is only about 4 feet or so high. We do have an outdoor banner that moves in the wind and a few child pin wheels in the ground
and attached to the fence to hopefully help keep the predators away. The two older girls are sweet as can be and go into the coup at night by themselves. Out of the 8 babies 2 are little silkies and one in fact is tiny. She (hopefully) eats well and seems to be thriving but compared to the other birds she is about half the size. Would it be wish to put the 6 bantams out first and keep the silkies inside the broader a few
weeks longer or should I just wait til the 8 weeks and put them all out at once?
Thank you for any solid advice you can give to me.
them to our (gifted to us) 2 full grown sweet as can be Plymouth rocks? We asked at the feed store and one person said 5 weeks,
another 4 weeks and still another 8 weeks. Our coup is about 12 by 12 and 8ft tall with 8 boxes for egg laying, 2 roosts and an old
wooden ladder leaned against a wall that the girls seem to like. They have a fenced in run about 12 ft by 20 ft long outside. But the
height is only about 4 feet or so high. We do have an outdoor banner that moves in the wind and a few child pin wheels in the ground
and attached to the fence to hopefully help keep the predators away. The two older girls are sweet as can be and go into the coup at night by themselves. Out of the 8 babies 2 are little silkies and one in fact is tiny. She (hopefully) eats well and seems to be thriving but compared to the other birds she is about half the size. Would it be wish to put the 6 bantams out first and keep the silkies inside the broader a few
weeks longer or should I just wait til the 8 weeks and put them all out at once?
Thank you for any solid advice you can give to me.
and Welcome To BYC! Since your younger ones are all bantams? I would wait until they are about as big as they are going to get (~4 months) and then introduce them gradually, a period of time separated by wire usually works well, ie if you can separate your coop/run or put the younger chicks in a cage inside. That gives them time to get used to each other and kind of establish a pecking order. There is a good article in the Learning Center on combining flocks 
