When to introduce new chicks?

[gumbita]

Hi! First time chicken owner here and I am loving these little girls! I have 3 cochins that are about 4 weeks old. They have already quite a bit of feathering and are big. I had wanted to get americanas at the same time as them but the feed store was out so we just got the cochins. They are getting more in next Friday the 12th. The three cochins are all really sweet birds, and I'm wondering is it worth screwing up their pecking order and getting two Americana babies? I even thought about setting up two separate brooders, and then combining them once they go out to the coop, but I only have one brooder mat. Wondering if by next week the almost five week chicks will be able to be without it (my husband says I keep the house warm enough to grow orchids it's between 70-76F. So one, is it worth the extra trouble of adding two new chicks when my current ones are healthy and happy, and two, if I do, is it best to combine the 5 weekers and the babies together in the same original brooder or get a separate brooder and move the heater out of the cochins and into the baby one and combine them later in the coop??

 

[Shorty22366]

Your cochrins shouldn't need the heat mat anymore. My babies are in the coop from the first day
If a broody doesn't raise them they are off added heat by 4 weeks
Just the way I do things.

 

[gumbita]

They don't really go under there anymore, you are right! So then I wonder if I lowered it to new baby height and put the new ones in there with the cochins if they'd be ok since they could go under the heat mat and the bigger ones wouldn't be able to fit! But the cochins would definitely go outside before the americanas, so maybe just keep them separate until then? I don't know