What makes a chicken coop easy to live with?

[joza2210]

would a quite young rhode island red be ok with my japanese bantams ??

[Redwing]

no, they will pick on it when its young and so it needs completely separate housing and when it is old enough to be integrated it wll be so much bigger than them so its not a good match

 

You shoud be looking towards something like Dutch, Barbu D'uccle (not sure if I spelt that correctly) Sablepoot or Pekin bantams as a match for yours really and even then they will still need to be kept separate for a while

[Falkor]

How young is young?

 

Redwing is correct though, slow, careful introductions are needed when intergrating any chooks.

 

There is a great posting here viewtopic.php?f=42&t=25886 about introducing, have a read and think on it. I have followed this advice twice now and it has worked well. I have tended to get birds prior to them being POL and but kept them insight but safe from my big girls, in an enclosed run. From when newbies have been POL I have taken 7 weeks to do the introductions as decribed in the link. So in all it was 11 weeks before they were all in the cube together.

 

There are different schools of thought on mixing large fowl and bantams - it has worked for some and has not worked for others. I know of bantams that have been seriously injured by larger chooks during introductions. I have both large fowl and bantams who are housed and free-ranged seperately and think I will be keeping it that way.

 

Also you say "a" rhode island red. Will you only be getting one newbie? It is very difficult to introduce a lone hen to an existing group as they will gang up on the newcomer. It is much easier to introduce more than one bird as the newbies can pair up and it will seem that you have two mini flocks long after they have all moved in together.

 

Hope this is helpful to you.

 

Em

x

[Jools]

Just like anything, it depends on the bantam and it depends on the chicken. Some bantams are like terriers, they have no perception of size and have egos the size of a planet.

 

I keep both and I keep them separate, but the reason is purely functional. My bantams are more pets that lay eggs, whereas my big chickens are about meat production. I have to keep them separate in my head and in reality.

 

However, I have moved my two big Rhodes into an area next to my bantams for a while. My tiny Old English Game bantam constantly flies over the fence to see them and to duff them up. The Rhodes keep their distance now as she is definitely the boss.

 

Age is important. Your young Rhode will be immature and will be picked on by any adult bantam or chicken. Once she's laying, she'll find her own place in the pecking order, but it might not be a good idea to mix her so young.

[Janty]

I have a friend who bought four new hens yesterday and ignored my advice regarding intros. He put the four 15 week hens in with his other six. When he woke up this morning two of his new girls were dead. It is worth taking the time to introduce the girls gradually.

[Old Speckled Hen]

I have a friend who bought four new hens yesterday and ignored my advice regarding intros. He put the four 15 week hens in with his other six. When he woke up this morning two of his new girls were dead. It is worth taking the time to introduce the girls gradually.

OMG that's awful.

Why don't people listen to good advice?

I've bookmarked the intro thread for when I get more.