Mixing Breeds in the Flock

[ebop]

hi kris I'm up in maine and have all those breeds together my self. They do fine except the blue eggers.....they don't lay all winter. The rir's give the biggest and best eggs

 

[mcbrown7513]

Here's my Dingbat. She runs up to me and makes all kinds of noise until I pick her up. It is hard to do chores with having to hold her but she is insistent! I didn't "make" her a pet, she just became one and I love the dingy!

Love the name, and she is a cute bird. Hoping to get a broody hen to hatch a few babies. My flock were bought past 22 weeks or older. Not much human contact so not overly affectionate. Only my Lavender Orpington rooster is happy being handled.

 

[Phoenixxx]

I'm partial to a mixed flock myself, they're SO much fun! The only problem is trying to figure out who the dads are when hatching chicks because I always have more than one roo Next year should be easier, though - the two boys I'll be using for breeding then are completely different from each other. One is part ameracauna, part blue australorp and either part black australorp and/or FBCM; the other is half light brahma, half buff orp. I like hatching mixes - my last two hatches produced a total of 3 white chicks and I don't even know how because the parents are both black! (Both parents have the blue feather gene as well as whatever colour the ameracauna grandparent/great-grandparent was.) I also had one green egg-layer (if it's a girl ) hatch out of a brown marans (part marans, anyway) egg!

Personality-wise, I also like the variety. Depending on how many you have, you might find that they all split up into their own smaller groups, each with differing personalities/behaviours. Makes for really good chicken tv! One of the best episodes I ever watched (of "chicken tv") was when a white phoenix (a bantam) roo I had mounted my black australorp (large fowl) hen and she wanted none of that.... Well, he kept right on doing his business as she was running away with him still on her back!

 

[hippiestink]

I have a very mixed flock with no repeated breeds. I find out of all of them my favorites are the Columbian Wyandotte, Black and Red Sex Links, and Easter Eggers. Anconas are a total nightmare (very flighty, required wing clipping to keep grounded) and while Barred Rocks and d'Uccles are decent birds I found my Rocks to be on the aggressive side and my d'Uccle is not the most prolific layer.

 

[mymilliefleur]

I too have had lots of success with a mixed flock. I have multiple breeds, including RIR, EE's Wyandottes, Sexlinks, and many others, of varying ages, along with a couple bantams. They all get along with no issues. If you are new to chickens, I would definitely go with a mixed flock. You can always decide what breed(s) do best for you later.

 

[tao chick]

I have 3 mixed breed white chickens, 1 barred rock, 1 black orpington, 1 Wheaten ameraucana, 1 buff-Laced Brahma, 1 welsummer, 1 crested cream legbar, 1 black copper marans, 1 lavender ameraucana, 1 barnevelder, 3 brabanters, and 2 mixed chicks.
I didn't plan on such a diverse flock, but I liked all of these breeds. They are all large fowl, so there haven't been problems. The older ones pick on the younger ones until they reach maturity. Then it all works out.

 

[purefun]

I have a mixed flock They have no issues I also have 4 children from 16 to 10 but loads of other children visit our farm our dogs love her chickens but chickens love her horses and the kids love all of them we're all a big happy family I have 13 black Australian Blue Rock 1 Rhode Island Red 1 susex 5 giant chickens 10 Easter Eggers 2 Plymouth Rocks

 

[ShrekDawg]

We have 8 chicks and so far they all seem to be getting along. They were a bit cramped the first 3 weeks as they've been in the bathroom but they just moved to the garage yesterday. It's not that much bigger but it's square so I can put stuff in corners and there's actually floor space. I'm also planning on adding a pen for them to run around and.outside time. Anyway, my point is they were a bit tight so are a little pecky sometimes but I haven't really noticed them being really mean per se. I have noticed though that the EEs and Barred Rock would peck the others heads when I fed them from my.hand because they couldn't squeeze in and obviously wanted food. They would just peck their heads like "hey move" and continue pecking if they didn't then just shove themselves in so I think they are higher in the pecking order.

We have 1 Barred Rock, 2 Black Australorp, 3 Buff Orpington, 2 Easter Egger.

We had 2 Barred Rocks but one died at 6 days old so it's been a little while now but it didn't seem to affect the order much. She was smaller and weaker so I think near the bottom anyway.

They all seem to get along great though.

 

[Rodayan]

The BOs were very accepting. If it had been the other way around and the BRs had been older, I think they would have given the slightly meeker BOs a tougher time. I would say the my BRs are pushier than the BOs but that the two breeds are pretty evenly matched temperament-wise and you should have no problems especially if you get them all at the same age.

Oh, my BOs lay slightly larger and a bit darker brown eggs than the BRs do. I'm really pleased with both breeds temperament and looks--so much so that I will probably always have some of both in my flock. They remind me of the flock my grandmother had.

I also have a mixed breed flock: 4 mutts of Bantam, Silkie, and Sussex descent; they were originally the rulers of the roost above the 2 BRs but the BRs when they got larger climbed the ranks rapidly to hover around 2-4th position (the biggest Bantam x Sussex stayed on top: Prima). When one of the BRs got put down we got the 2 Hyline x BOs.

My limited experience with 2 BRs and 2 (younger) BOs agrees with both of the above statements. The BOs are more docile and lower in the overall pecking order than the BRs. The BO eggs were slightly bigger - mostly in circumference (wider, rounder) than the BR eggs, which also tended to have a slight white speckling that rubs off. Two of the Bantams laid white eggs - one much smaller than the other - and two laid light brown eggs.

The BOs were more prone to getting scaly leg mites, but that's easily treatable and should be preventable.

I do hear that RIR's can be a bit aggressive, so I guess check out where you are getting them first for the temperaments of the parents and how they raise their chicks? I might be wrong on this though so please get a second opinion. This is just why I did not choose them.
I also hear that Orpingtons make great pets for children due to their docile nature, so I would totally recommend getting at least a couple of BO's. If you can get Orpington crossed with a dark brown egg layer, that could be fun?
I would also make sure to get pairs of the same type at least as if there's one that looks too different from the rest of a flock they tend to get pecked on.

 

[free range kids]

Hi,
We have 14 breeds in our 30 chicken flock. They are great fun and get along pretty well. Our RIR were kind of bullies so we sent them to freezer camp. It's been pretty peaceful since..