Bantam Cochin with production reds... will they likely get along?

[Kaceyx73]

I currently have 11 production red pullets and 1 cockerel, plus another btb maran rooster. I am in need of a good broody, and there have been plenty of bantam cochins floating around on CL lately. How well do you folks think they will interact with the bantam cochin? Being on the bottom of the pecking order is one thing, but being pecked to death is another. My girls are sweet, but do squabble amongst each other on occasion, especially around roosting time. Eventually I would like to get some marans, but I really want some chicks this spring, so a girl up to being broody in the next month or so would be ideal.

Any thoughts? Should I plan on separate living arrangements?

 

[Laurajean]

I have all bantams, one of them a bantam cochin, who is very sweet and docile. I recently rescued my neighbors' RIR because he couldn't properly house her. Anyway, she is getting along just fine with them. The RIR seems to have a friendly temperament, and they all get along just fine. As a matter of fact, most of them are Silkies who sleep on the coop floor, so the Cochin and the RIR perch together on the roost at night.

 

[axion_lotus]

Well, the thing about Rhode-Island Reds is that their personalities are very hit-or-miss. Some will be really sweet towards other birds, others will be really mean, to the point of bloodshed.

My parents raised RIRs for almost 11 years, and they were some very feisty and bossy birds. They never got along with other breeds, even if the breed was bigger than they were! Even my nicest, most docile RIR hen, Jesse, did not like my other breeds we tried to introduce.

Honestly, if it were me, I'd say NO to putting the bantam cochin with the RIRs, but since your RIRs seem to be okay and pretty even-tempered, you could give it a shot. I'd just watch for a few days and see how it goes, and so long as no one's killing each other, all should be golden.

I also read that chickens have a strict hierarchy among them, and adding a new member throws everything out of whack, and they have to 'reassert' themselves into the order again.

(Now, these ideas I have listed here I never had a chance to try on my flock, because I didn't know nearly as much about chickens as I do now. Research has done wonders!)

-Some people recommend putting the new member in a cage in the coop for awhile, to let the new kid and the other gals get used to each other from a distance.

-Also, once they're in the cage for awhile, you should probably introduce the new kid at night while the other chickens are roosting, to give the others the idea that the new member is "supposed to be there."

-Another good idea would be to give the flock plenty of other distracting activities, like hanging some leafy greens up high just barely within reach, to get the birds' attention and give them some exercise, too. Quite a bit of chicken-picking comes from them just being bored and having nothing better to do than pick on each other.

Chickens will be chickens.

Hope all this helps, and good luck!

 

[Kaceyx73]

Thanks for the replies.

At some point in the near future, I do planning on adding some coop space. There is room in the coop for more, but only when they can get outside. It helps keep them warm, but when they refuse to come out in the snow, that little coop just doesn't give them elbow room. In addition to the new coop, I planned on covering their old run to give more "out of the weather" space, and possibly making it into a nursery/ brooder area. That's part of my dilemma, to do it now so the new run keeps a different group separated or introduce the new girl into the old flock.

 

[gryeyes]

Ummmmm, can you possibly add TWO bantam cochins at the same time? Solo birds, even with plenty of segregation/integration time, can get ganged up on pretty easily.

With that said, I have introduced single LF hens to my flock on two occasions, quite successfully. I just use a coop kit with attached pen for the two week "Y'all See Me, I See All Y'all" period. The hen is so glad to get out of it and the rest of the flock is really used to seeing and hearing her by then so she's not a stranger to them.

It should work with a bantam cochin. But TWO would be much more cool!

 

[Fred's Hens]

While super sweet birds, to people, the production red can be really rough in chicken politics. They don't take prisoners.