4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[beach chick]

by the end of the summer, the babies will be about 20 weeks old, and will have spent 3 months inside the omlet netting. Sugar and Meringue should be laying by then, and when they do I'm planning to get them in the pink eglu with the big girls, completely freerange, leaving the babies the purple eglu and netting.

 

if I got a cube (have to think how to pay for it but that's a diff. issue!), come September, would the then 20 week old silkie bantams be physically big enough to go in with everyone else? they are currently with a sussex of the same age, and she's already twice their size.

 

that would mean 8 birds in the cube, 5 'big' girls and 3 banties. then I would have one eglu to keep as a spare - hopefully for 2 ex batts in August, which could go in the cube as well in due course, and could sell the other eglu to offset price of cube. or just keep it for future expansion (!)

 

is this a good plan, or should I always keep the banties separate?

[superjules]

I'd split the big girls up for a while if you are going to introduce the silkies. When you are introducing bantams, it's best to add more bantams than big girls so they are not outnumbered. When the babies are around 22 weeks, try them in with 2 of the big girls then after another 3/4 weeks, put the other two in. Also, make them some hiding places that the big girls are too large to follow them into so that they can have some respite if they need it.

 

Don't be tempted to get rid of your eglu before they are all living harmoniously, you may need to take things slower than you imagine and murphys law says that if you haven't got alternative accommodation available, you're going to need it.

 

Mixing bantams in with hybrids can work, although I don't know much about the silkie temperament - all our bantams are pretty feisty little things and won't take any nonsense, no matter how big the other chook is.