[tbjdiamonddog]

our one chick is now 5 weeks old, when will mum leave it, she has stopped sitting in the box she hatched the chick in and sits back high on a perch. Baby chick get's up there somehow too and sits close to but not underneath any more.
Questions are, when should mum be let back with my other 6 chickens and Cockerel, when will the chick go on to different food and roughly what age or is it size the chick can be introduced to the main 5 chickens....oh one last thing, looking at the chicks feet i am pretty sure it's a Cockerel, it has large feathers on the legs just like Cocky the Road Island Red daddy

[Chablis Dog]

I am in exactly the same position as you, I have a nearly five week old (probably male) chick.  However I didn't keep them separate from my other hen and coq as I have such a small flock and a large hen house.  My chick has been outside since he was about 4 days old and learning natural behaviour from his very protective mum.  It was a bit nerve-wracking to leave them to their own devices and I am still amazed that he hasn't been eaten by the wide range of predators around here but I thought that was a price worth paying for him to have a natural life.  One of my funniest times with him was watching him at about 4 days old, copying mum in trying to have a dust bath outside. I fed him on chick crumb until he was a month old but by that time he was starting to eat whatever else was around anyway.  Yesterday he tucked into some of the leftover pasta I put out for the others.    He still stays close to mum but appears to be a very confident bird aware of his surroundings.  I watched him race for the protection of the barn when he heard the screech of a buzzard not too far away a couple of days ago.  It has been very interesting to watch his behaviour in comparison to the four 7 week old marran cuckoo chicks I bought at the market last week who clearly haven't had mum to teach them stuff and their development is well behind his.  Mum is still very protective at the moment but I think she will lose interest in just a few weeks.

[joyfull]

mum will defend her little one if she thinks the others are bullying, just make sure there are lots of places for it to escape from too much attention if it wants. Have you kept them in full view of the other hens? If yes then you should have little or no problems 

[tbjdiamonddog]

Thanks for the reply's, i read them and decided to pop them all in together, it's been around 5 days now and no real problems. One of the existing chickens has taken a dislike to 'mum' coming back into the fold, as she still gets down and ready for daddy cocky when he is around, so it's all understandable. But the little one is fine and my daughter has name him 'precious'