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My mother has bantams and raises them. She doesn't incubate the eggs because her hens are broody and she lets them do the work for her but when researching the incubation process, they are handled the same as standards.

They should be okay together. I just mixed a week old with 16 one day old chicks with no problem. I ws also told that you can add them together with up to a three week age difference. The only thing that I would be careful of is diseases. Normally they suggest keeping any new additions to...

I don't believe that there is any difference between hatching out bantams and standard chickens. The temperature should be about the same for the babies maybe a little higher for the bantams but you should use their body language to determine if they are happy or not. What do you mean by...

We have had chickens for about 7 years and have had two attacks. The first one was on my two Orpingtons that we free ranged. They were killed and not eaten. We believe either one of our dogs or our neighbor's dogs. Lesson learned, we no longer free range our chickens. Our second attack was...

Update: Here is what we did. Our Easter Egger was one of the lowest in the pecking order in our old flock, which might make a difference. We introduced our 17 three week old chicks as follows. Day one and two, we put them in a separate cage in the run. Day three and four, we put them in...

I have never had a rooster but have had dominant, in charge hens. Recently one of my four year old hens decided to take over other rooster responsibilities. She had been mounting other hens but she is also still laying eggs. I did research and a hen can take the place of the rooster in a...

I haven't had a problem with Australorps going broody. They are great brown egg layers and very docile chickens. Are you looking for a chicken with long term laying ability or short term? Some breeds are great short term layers, especially the production breeds but they stop laying earlier...

I had a similar problem a couple of years ago. I ordered 15 day old chicks from a hatchery and they were shipped on a Wednesday. I talked to the hatchery on Friday, the last day of operation for the week and was told they should be there on Saturday the latest. When they didn't arrive on...

I usually introduce my chicks when they are about 12 - 14 weeks old but due to the circumstances, I was looking at introducing them early. I thought that since I had 17 babies and only one hen that wasn't 100% and that was lonely maybe she would be more accepting. I was going to put them in a...

About a week ago, our chicken flock was attacked and only one chicken survived. The survivor is our sweet Easter Egger hen, Sugar. It was a miracle because she is our son’s favorite and my husband and I have always been very protective of her. She was unable to see for a few days due to...

I agree that the Delawares have great personalities. Out of my mixed flock, they are my favorite. The only problem with them is their color. I find that if you free range them, like my mother, you are bound to lose them. If you are keeping them protected then they are a great dual purpose bird.

The chicken wire is still intact. It seemed to grab the bird through the chicken wire without breaking the wire. Today, I put some branches around the area that the bird was killed and hope that it will discourage the predators by making an obstacle in front of the wire.

I have a small flock and protect my chickens by having a large covered run. Yesterday I lost one of my chickens. It was killed through the chicken wire. Is there anyway to deter owls and hawks from killing through the run?

Today, I set up a temporary fence for my 17 chicks in my larger chicken run. After about an hour of no problems, I made an opening for the babies to get into the larger opening. They had a few pecking issues but nothing major. I was very happy and planned on keeping the two groups together...

What do you normally do about feed for a mixed flock? I considered putting two containers, one with non-medicated chick starter/grower and another with layer pellets, or one container either with both feeds mixed or with just one of the feeds (layer pellets or chick starter/grower. Any advice?

I have looked at that article in the past. I think I'll have to be a little patient and do the temporary fence idea and see how it goes. Thanks for your reply.

Thank you for the post. I would love to move them sooner than later. The coop and run they are in is a little small and they are starting the smell. I have to clean the coop about twice a week to keep up. I considered putting up some chicken wire inside the run to separate the chickens for a...

I have been raising chickens for the past six years. We have never mixed flocks before. This year my wonderful husband made a large chicken run and coop that can house all of our chickens. We have five adult hens and 17 eight week old pullets. I have been doing a lot a reading about mixing...