Babies and teenagers chick questions?

[Joeys Chickens]

I am wanting to have a mixed flock of chickens and want to be sure they get along and no one gets picked on. Right now I have sex-links and lemon cuckoo orplintons together and I am hoping to get 3 other different ones. One of the breeds

I am hoping is Americana's and 2 others but wanting to know what are the best to have together.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Chickens pick on each other to establish the pecking order. Usually once the pecking order is established and the chickens have matured things are really peaceful but occasionally there might be a little reinforcement of the pecking order. This is normally not serious at all. Some people not used to chickens consider normal chicken mating to be brutal or rough. A rooster does grab the back of a hen’s head as a normal part of mating. If the hen resists, the rooster may force her. This is what chickens do, regardless of breed. Occasionally you get a brute that does not need to be in the flock, either male or female. These are not normal chickens and can be of any breed.

Breed isn’t that important in any of this. You can have a perfectly peaceful flock of any breed or mix of breeds or even mutts (crossbreeds). Pick the breeds you want and give it a try.

But what can you do to minimize them picking on each other? Do not get any roosters, no males of any age. Some people consider normal rooster behavior to be brutal. Don’t risk it. It sounds like you may not like it.

Provide as much space as you can, in the coop and in the run. Do not crowd them. You can follow the link in my signature to get my thoughts on room, but the more I crowd them the more behavioral problems I have to deal with. Don’t believe in that 4 square feet in the coop and 10 in the run. That is just a starting point and will work for most people with a flock of all hens the same age, but to help insure a peaceful flock, provide more room. How much more? As much as you reasonably can.

The time mine are most brutal to each other is when they are settling down to sleep at night, even in an established peaceful flock. Where they get to sleep is determined by the pecking order but some lower ranking members seem to keep trying to sleep in higher ranking chickens favorite spots. And some chickens are just bullies. They might go out of their way to be bullies on the roosts. The easiest way to combat this is to provide roosting space for the weaker to get away from the stronger. It’s not so much of providing so many inches per bird but more of spreading the roosts out so the weaker have a safe place to go where the stronger won’t bother them. Again, don’t provide the absolute minimum room you think you can get by with. Extra space really helps.

Keep the hens all the same age. Mature chickens outrank immature chickens in the pecking order and often will reinforce those pecking order rights when the chicks invade their personal space. Many of us integrate chicks with the flock all the time and it often goes pretty peacefully. With enough space the chicks create a separate flock and stay as far from the adults as they can. It doesn’t have to be that bad. But the potential is there for a hen to pick on a chick, especially if room is tight. And when the chicks mature enough they will force their way into the pecking order. If they have been raised with the flock this is normally a very peaceful process. They can pretty much tell which has the stronger personality. But occasionally you get some that are pretty evenly matched and they have to fight it out.

Don’t integrate chickens. When you introduce strange chickens they have to sort out the pecking order. There are tricks you can use to help make this more likely to be peaceful but they have to sort out the pecking order.

This leaves you with a problem. You have chickens and want to add more. You have to integrate. So how can you minimize the conflict? First, choose whichever breeds you want but try to get ones that are about the same size when they are adults. I think personality is more important than size but some people worry about that. I’d avoid chickens that will look strange. Silkies have strange feathers and can’t fly. That inability to fly can add to management complexity too. I’d also avoid the ones like Polish that have funny things around their heads. I know, many people have Silkies and Polish along with other chickens and never have any problems, but occasionally you read about feather picking or other issues with them. We are talking about going to extremes to avoid any conflict here. Besides bantams don’t normally come sexed and you want to assure all females.

You could get other adult hens, house them next to your current flock for a few weeks so they get used to each other, and eventually integrate them. If your new hens are from separate flocks they have their own integration to go through. They will sort out the pecking order but often with sufficient room this goes fairly smoothly. You can expect some pecking until they do sort out the pecking order but it normally isn’t that bad. And after you let them mix, let them sleep in separate places at night if they want to. Eventually you can move them all in together but don’t lock them in a confined space like the coop until they are really integrated. With adults you have to face the quarantine issue. This method can and often does work quite well but it’s not my favorite.

What I would do in your situation is get sexed chicks and raise them with the flock as much as possible. Build a separate coop and run adjacent to the main coop and run or partition your main coop into sections where you can house the chicks next to the adults but the adults can’t get to the chicks. I think it helps to have your brooder in the main coop so they chicks are really raised with the flock. I do all this and let my chicks and adults mingle at 8 weeks. With lots of room and a separate sleeping area, this works well for me but you can wait until the chicks are older if you want to. Having multiple feeding and watering stations is highly recommended. A safe haven for the chicks helps too. That’s where you have openings the chicks can use to get to an area but the hens are too big to get through. I don’t have a safe haven and it is not a problem for me with my space and management techniques, but if room is anywhere close to tight it can really help. My pullets raised this way normally have very little problems making their way into the main flock when they mature enough to find a place in the pecking order (normally about the time they start laying themselves), but occasionally there is a bit of conflict. Normally not much and not often but it is possible.

Some conflict and picking is pretty much inevitable with chickens. It’s called the pecking order for a reason. But if you provide adequate room it’s normally not all that dangerous or vicious. You can get a brute in any breed of any sex, that’s just the luck of the draw, but with lots of room it normally is really peaceful once they sort it all out. I’ll stop rambling. Good luck!