Is anybody keeping bantams on free-range or would that mean you are just feeding them to the (big) birds?
Well, in my case, it would be a bad idea. My Delawares are substantially larger than my bantam Brahmas and they would terrorize them. I once had an escaped bantam male chased into a ditch by my Del roo, and he was trembling with terror when I extracted him and put him back in his nice, safe pen. As it is, my Del roosters stalk around the perimeter of the bantam pens, but they can't do any harm. I know that bantams raised with standards can fare better, but in my experience, even that means that the banties can get bullied some. Bantams on range may be easy prey for hawks, who don't always see large standard chickens as prey (at least not right away). As a general rule of thumb, it's better to pen up the bantams.
I free range my banties and my standards together. Only recently did I have to save one of my banty roos from a Wellie roo. The Wellie has now taken over the banty boys' flock but they will soon go into breeding pens so I am not worried. The banty is just hanging out and letting the Wellie have his fun for now. At night they still go up in their respective coops and there is plenty of land here for them to stay out of each others way. It has helped since we took out a few extra roos last weekend. I have noticed a wonderful change in the free rangers.
I actually won't have any roos. Just hens. My worry is mostly about predators. We don't have red-tail hawk but we do have the smaller red-shoulder hawks (striped tails). We also have owls but of course at night the chickens would be in their coop/run...
