Can barred rocks and orpingtons be together?

[MrOrpington]

I have 7 buff orpingtons right now and next year plan to get more chickens. I hear barred rocks are great egg layers, but tend to be bossy to docile chickens. If I raised them as chicks around the orpingtons would they be less bossy to the orps once they matured?

 

[trailrider330]

I have one of each together in a flock of 12. The barred rock does tend to dominate all the other hens, but my Orpington seems to hold her own and is far from the bottom of the pecking order.

 

[MrOrpington]

Ok. Yeah my orps aren't very docile. The one is in charge and doesn't take lightly to some things. Thanks for your input.

 

[Cacique500]

All I have are BR's and BO's...and they get along great. Our dominant hen is a BO, #2 is a BR, #3 is a BR, and #4 is a BO. The dominant BO and the #3 BR are best buddies and hang out all day together.

The only time I see any problems are when somebody tries to snatch a snack from the dominant BO...she doesn't like that

 

[Ridgerunner]

Each chicken of any breed is an individual with its own personality. Once they mature they will sort out the pecking order in accordance to those individual personalities. BO’s may be on top, BR’s may be on top. More likely it will be mixed as Cacique said. Don’t worry too much about this. They are living animals with their own individual personalities so no one can give you any guarantees, but the odds are tremendous they will work it out and it will be pretty peaceful. They should get along as well as any other breeds.

 

[Spartan22]

2X Ridgerunner on chicken personalities, I got 4 Barred Rocks, they are the most docile and non of them are on top of pecking order. Matter of fact, they are toward the bottom. My top hens are the Leghorns, Black Copper Marans and RIR.

 

[TalkALittle]

I have 3 of each in my flock of 8. They mingle nicely. Top hen is a bossy Barred Rock but the lower ranks are a balance of the rest. Lowest bird is a Barred Rock. They all roost side by side with no more squabbles between birds of different breeds than between birds of the same breed. Many times the line up on the roost is Barred Rock, Buff Orpington, Barred Rock, Buff Orpington, etc.

I got the Buffs as chicks first and the Rock chicks about 5 weeks later. Integration of the younger Rocks went well. Had it been the other way around and the Buffs been the younger birds, I think the Rocks would have given them a hard time.