Chicken bald back

[Clucky the Great]

I am new to chicken keeping and planning on getting ex-batts. However, the date of release have been put back to mid/late January. I have heard that already being 80weeks old and being hybrids means they don't live as long. So I was thinking of getting 2 POL araucanas from a local breeder. Do you think it would be "okay" to intergrate 2 POL with 4 or 5 exbatts or just wait till Jan amd get 6 exbatts...I just can't wait to get some with an empty coop waiting for them!! What should I do!

[Lavenders_Blue]

I have heard that already being 80weeks old and being hybrids means they don't live as long.

 

Ex batts are very variable in how long they live. I currently have one who has been enjoying the free range life for 4 years! Her 'sisters' all made it to at least 2 years of freedom - all going to the great coop in the sky between 2-3 years after rescuing.

The next lot of ex batts I rescued sadly all died before they made it to a year of freedom

So it really is very variable.

 

I'd say, go with whatever you want to do. If you want to get a couple of araucanas and then add ex batts in January, that will be just fine. What I would say though is that it's not a great time of year to buy POLs. They may well not come into lay until the spring, so if you're hoping for eggs straight away you might be disappointed.

[sjp]

the 'season' for pol pure breeds is late spring/early summer to about early winter pol hybrids are more or less all year round

but as said getting pol now the odds of eggs this side of Christmas is low personally I'd go for it I missed out on blue leghorns by a week when I first started keeping chucks due to partly bad weather over the winter delaying the building of the coop and run and Me waiting the extra week to save me making 2 journeys two weekends running to the same area

[Patricia W]

I have 2 aracaunas living with 3 ex-batts. They are rather aloof and don't really mix but live side by side. As pure breeds they don't lay in the winter (September till about March) but produce a lovely blue egg each most days in the spring and summer. So I don't think you'd get any eggs now even if you bought POL.

 

As for integrating them with ex-bats, it's the usual thing of slow introductions and patience. I always keep my ex-bats by themselves anyway for about a month to 6 weeks simply to let them acclimatise.

[Clucky the Great]

Thank you all for your advice. I have decided after someone trying to give me 6 fancy breeds for free to instead wait till Jan and do as planned and just get the ex-batts. So there is no mixing and I have time to sort a permanent site out...maybe with a view to get araucanas if I lose a few next year as they sound like a gorgeous breed cube arrived today so gonna get building at the weekend