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

[katieD]

hi

 

im starting to consider breeds to add to my 3 girls when my arrives.

 

i'd love a mix- bantams, large breeds etc would this be possible or would it cause more problems with intros etc? i current have 3 rangers.

 

thanks

[Janty]

I have a mix of sizes but they chose to live together. Originally the bantams had an eglu and the biggies had the cube.

 

When I first tried to have the big girls living with bantams in the cube and run it was a huge mistake as the big girls were very rough with the bantams. I would advise separate housing if you are to get bantams. They are worth getting though as they have such great characters. I have pekins, a Vorwerk, an Orp, RIRs and Shetland crossbreeds.

[batcatz]

Hi, I have two 16 week(i think) silkies and a 22 week old speckled hybrid large fowl. I bought them from the same farm and put them in together straight away. The speckledy hen was a bit pecky the second day so I seperated them, but only for less than a day as the speckledy had flown over to the silkies. They are fine together now and the silkies stand up to the bigger hen. This could just be me being lucky though!!! I am totally new to this.

 

Amanda

[ubereglu]

Generally if you buy hens all from the same place at the same time, even if they are a mix of sizes, they get on reasonably well and you don't have too many problems, especially if they'd lived together before. As they're both in new surroundings they have to create a new pecking order, as they're not established.

[Janty]

However, I started by buying a mix of sizes from the same breeder and putting them all in together and they were vicious with the bantams. That's why I had to separate them and get an eglu. I wouldn't mind but the same hens have moved into a cube together now.

 

[ubereglu]

Well, it sometimes works. It would work if we got a mix of sizes from our chicken seller as he keeps his altogether.

[Chickens@61]

we have three big girls in with two bantams and they are the best of friends..

 

the two bantams do 'pair off' a little bit - like at the moment, they are both broody AGAIN so they are sat side by side in the nest box whilst the others scratch about together

 

no fighting though, if anything the bantams seem to be higher up the pecking order. we had them first, and slowly introduced the other three.

 

i have friends who have had problems with a big/little mixture.. but having said that i know people who have problems with a flock of all the same size so maybe it is just down to luck?

 

hope it goes well whatever you decide, choosing chickens is SO exciting

[Tulip]

We started off with a mix of 3 large girls plus a Cream Legbar and had no problems (though the CL was bottom of the PO).

 

We now have the 3 big girls (and I mean big - Lt Sussex, Buff Orp and Barnevelder) and five nine-week-old chicks - three CL and two Serama (tinytiny).

 

They all get along beautifully with no bullying and a limited amount of trampling - if there's food about, the Orpie won't even notice if she stands on two seramas as she charges towards it

 

One of the CL girls and the seramas havent yet graduated to sleeping in the cube and prefer going to bed in their kennel so they don't have to scale the ladder ( it is SO high for the seramas). The seramas have turned out to be boys mind, so we won't have to worry about longterm accomodation....

[chelsea]

Our two latest additions are tiny compared to our established flock, of course they are bottom of the pecking order but they have mixed in well.

 

I would suggest if you are going to attempt it to do it very slowly.. our 2 flocks were in seperate accommodation and runs for about 12 weeks before we combined the flock.