gongladosh Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 Unfortunately my poor ex-batt Barry died today - 18 months and two days after we took her at a BHWT rescue. Barry volunteered to join me by jumping over the barrier that created a pen for the hens - I couldn't say no to a willing volunteer! Sadly time caught up with her and I suspect she'd developed heart issues (blue comb etc) and shortly after reaching the point that she'd spent more of her life outside the cage than in it she passed away. It's made me think though that I need to start restocking. Does anyone know if it's safe to mix standard hybrids (bluebelle, speckledy, standard ISA), my purebreed Bantam Light Sussex with some new hens - in particular, Frizzles and Cream Legbars? I'm thinking of getting two of each. Any ideas guys? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
igobarefoot Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 Ah really sorry to hear about Barry, bless her. I'm sure the time with you completely eclipsed her life before and thank good she had those lovely 18 months to live a good chicken life. Bigs hugs down the line to you x I mixed pure breeds with my hybrids. Didn't really think about any pitfalls at the time, but in hindsight I probably should have considered the whole vaccinated/non vaccinated side of things. I've lost 3 girls since then, two to peritonitis and one to gapeworm, so nothing that could be linked back to mixing them up I think. Others will have more experience and advice I'm sure, I'm looking forward to seeing the piccies once you've got them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lavenders_Blue Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 I don't see any reason why not. But if you've got banties maybe just think about the size of the hens you get. For example, my bluebelle is a great big heavy lump of a hen. Thankfully she's pretty docile and in fact pretty much a complete wuss, but if she has a strop with one of the other girls she does have a rather amusing habit of trying to sit on top and flatten them. My girls are all ex batts and hybrids so can easily hold their own, but I think she could squash a bantam. Other than that, I think you should pick what you like! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chortle Chook Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 (edited) So sorry about Barry but she was lucky you took her in. I don't see why you can't mix some new breeds with your hybrids given due care over the intros. Are you looking at Pekin Frizzles or the breed Frizzles? The breed Frizzles are very rare in standard size so you would probably only be looking at banties which would be quite a bit smaller than your big girls as would Pekin Frizzles. Despite their banty size, I've found them to be hardy and well able to hold their own, but then I'm comparing them to my Silkies and Polands so perhaps that is no competition . Edited February 21, 2014 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 Well we had a mixed bundle of breeds - orpies, maran, Sussex, pekins and a silkie. All got on fine but I have to say that mine free range around the garden (less of the garden as I wanted some left for me before all the plants disappeared). The silkie would always wander off on her own quite happy and then go back for company when she needed to. One of the pekins always used to pair off with the maran. At the moment a pekin is pals with the Sussex as the older birds and besties have gone to the mealworm land in the sky. The remaining pekin wasn't afraid to take on any bigger birds - and our Maran still sticks her head down and pretends to be invisible (yeah as if) while the pekin puts her in her place! But as they free range they are able to get away from the girls who are being meannies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chortle Chook Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 I'd agree with Valkyrie that one of the key things in mixing hens is to let them have enough room to do their own thing. Funny, my silkies always seem to like to wander off on their own. They always remind me of Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter for those who have read it. Kind of head in the clouds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beantree Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 Hello Gongladosh. We had a very bad experience mixing hybrids with our pedigree flock (which also contained some non-immunised Black Rocks). The young and freshly immunised hybrids shed ILT and IB viruses and the whole lot went down with both together. We treated all with Synulox and fortunately didn't lose any, but it was a very stressful 2 weeks. The downsides were egg quality suffered with some, many had repeated ILT flareups and we were £200 worse off with vet bills. This was 7 years ago when live viruses introduced in the drinking water were a new thing for hybrids aimed at the domestic market. We closed our flock and started a separate flock for new pedigree birds well away from them. We never bought hybrids again, although we took some in and added them to the 'infected' flock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickabee Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 My pekin frizzle is so small you'd think she'd look lost with the big birds. However they all seem to ignore her. My biggest girl, welsummer actually decided to move in with my small girls, after a day free ranging. She's never moved out. Despite having much less room. In that run I have 3 vaccinated and one not. All fine so far. In my big run there are 2 vaccinated 3 not. Then there's the exbats, they don't mix, other than if they're all out FR -at the same time. Which is rare. Love my silkies. If I get another one might call it Luna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickabee Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 My little girls, before summer moved in Summer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 Well today was the day that I let all run together. At first the pekin took on the maran - who won. Pekin ran back to the buff Sussex that came out and trounced the maran. OK maran not the top of the order. Then several minutes later the orpie took on the buff and seemingly won. Blood drawn and I got covered in blood, wound powder and purple antiseptic spray. Luckily I got some on the buff. My cuckoo maran was watching from a safe distance and didn't get involved at all! After that both kept to their own sides of the garden. Buff did take on the orpie again and orpie ran away. No more blood but buff now top I think. Funny how the pekin is always hanging round with her - like a big bodyguard!! The last I saw was this evening when the buff wandered down the garden and got close to the newbies. Nothing happened - they pretended not to see each other and the buff was first to bed, closely followed by the pekin and then the cuckoo. Newbies rummaged around a bit longer and then went to bed. I'll let them run together for a couple more days before putting them both in the cube - will see how it goes. But little and large are fine together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chortle Chook Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 Nice cuckoo Maran - she deserves meal worms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gongladosh Posted March 18, 2014 Author Share Posted March 18, 2014 cheers for the replies guys, sounds like I need some more chickens then! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Mealworms withheld from said cuckoo. She was just biding her time. She is rather fond of reminding the orpie that she is no longer at the bottom of the pecking order and "the whippersnapper (not the dopey brown maran because I can just glare at her and she runs away) is not going to be the boss of me now!" So she stands on her back and pecks her neck. However they will all be in the dust bath together without any grumps or pecking. I'm also cutting down on the corn at tea time - they don't need it for such a long night now anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egg_x Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 Do all breeds of Bantams tend to mix okay? I'm looking to get either Pekins, Silkies or Light Sussex and now I'm starting to think 1 of each would be nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickabee Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 I've got 2 silkies and a pekin fizzle bantam. They get on just fine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chortle Chook Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 I've got 2 silkies and a pekin fizzle bantam. They get on just fine Like the idea of a 'fizzle' bantam - conjures up a wonderful picture Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickabee Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 can't even blame the ipad for that one. Silly typos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gongladosh Posted April 23, 2014 Author Share Posted April 23, 2014 fizzles sound great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 Now that's definitely on my want list! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
