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

[Tara123]

Hi everyone,

 

I haven't been on here for ages and its certainly changed a bit since I last visited

 

Anyway my question is can Chickens and Bantams live together happily? I'm having to re-home my 4 lovely bantam hens (2x pekins and 2x wynadottes) and the person that is possibly going to have them next week has 4 hens and a cockerel, i think they are Amber stars but i'm not sure.

 

Will they be OK together?

 

Tara

[percy049]

They should be, but the introduction time takes a lot longer than with both large fowl. Bullying is also more likely if they are bantams.

[memphisto]

I've got 2 Orpington Bantams and they've just been introduced to the big girls, it's been fine so far. Saw Phoebe giving Penny a run for her money earlier

[Tara123]

How long did you keep them separate for? x

[Mrs Webmuppet]

I tried to mix bantams and hybrids but it didn't work out. The hybrids picked on poor Bromley and I now have them in separate housing. I can't even let them out together as the hybrids make a beeline for Bromley and start pulling her feathers out.

[memphisto]

2 weeks, but they could see each other.

 

Sorry to hear you are having to rehome your girls if they have Amber stars, they, if they are anything like my white star, they are small, quite scatty and nervy. I have a white star and she's great with the bantams, she prefers their coop to her own with the big girls.

[docsquid]

I've got four big girls and five bantams all living together. I had the first three bantams as youngsters. I had to keep them separate (but within sight) for about 6 weeks. There was a small amount of disciplinary pecking when they got let out, but basically they got on fine since then.

 

Recently, all but one of the original banties moved in with the big girls in the cube, so I ended up getting another couple of silkies to go in the Eglu with Gwladys, my frizzle silkie. They are not separated (they did the crash intros themselves by flying over the divider), but living with Gwladys in the Eglu. During the day, once they are fed and eggs laid, I shut out the bigger girls, so the silkies can get a good feed shut in the WIR, and this is working fine. Certainly there is more food disappearing each day, which implies the new girls are getting their share. The new girls are gradually picking up courage, and one even snatched a piece of eggshell from my top chook Blodwyn. So they can live together. To be honest, I think the big girls aren't bothered as they don't see a few balls of fluff as a threat to them.

 

However, I don't have any bully chickens. I suspect if you have a dominant or bully chicken, things might be different.

[Tara123]

Hmmm, thanks guys, I'm still not sure what to do as I know it took weeks 2 introduce 2 new girls to my 2 older girls and they are all bantams and the same size.

 

I sure he has white stars now I think about it but he is only going to keep them separate for a week (side by side) then put them all together and I don't think that's long enough. One of my girls is getting old now and I don't think she could handle the stress of bigger hens picking on her

 

I think I might post an ad on here for them to go with my eglu and run that i'm also having to sell

[fluffy chick]

Hmm maybe

I tried to introduce some bantams to some hybrids and gave up pretty quickly, tried again later on and it was worse. It was clear the hybrids were going to be horrible for a long time. I was genuinely worried one banty in particular was going to be killed They were taking it turns to stand on her and attack her.

 

I have introduced large foul to bantams but wouldn't want to try it the other way round again.

[Tara123]

Ok I've changed my mind about letting them go to a larger established group of bigger hens. The guy was very nice and had a good set up for his hens with plenty of room to add more but I don't think he has had the experience of introducing 2 different flocks of birds with each other and I don't think he really knows what he would be letting himself in for. Plus I would worry to much about my girls getting hurt even though I wouldn't know anything about it as I doubt that he would tell me once they had gone to him.

 

I have put an ad on here now for my girls to go with my eglu and hopefully someone will want them who would keep in touch from time to time to let me know how they are doing

[Space Chick]

The fact that the person has a cockerel makes introductions easier... Cockerels tend to sort out any agro... However, I'd be concerned with a large fowl cockerel treading the bantams how big is the cockerel? If he's a white star too then he won't be That big, but still significantly bigger than the banties.

 

I've introduced bantams to hybrids and large fowl, it takes time but can work (although I did have to rehome 2 Pekins that couldn't find their place)

[coco]

I have bantams and large girls that live together happily, all my girls are pure breeds though. The quickest intro I have ever done was between two pekins and the rest of the chickens. I had the tow new pekins in a small house and run inside the WIR, they had only been in there a day when I came home from work to find the pekins had escaped and were happily scratchiong round with the other hens, just lucky I think.