Bantams with main flock or not?

[loonychickenlady]

I have a mixed breed flock with a wide variety of breeds including orpingtons, wyandottes, easter eggers, leghorns, light sussex, marans etc and I have some pekin and polish bantams and soon to have sebrights too…
Whats your opinion on having a full size fowl with bantams in one flock or a separate bantam flock?

We have space for the bantams to sleep in a separate coop and free range with the main flock or to live in the coop with the others…
The pekins are integrated and nobody minds them but they sleep in their own coop currently and the polish bantams were raised with the majority of the younger birds so do I separate those or try one flock?

Opinions please

 

[DobieLover]

I keep bantams in with my LF birds without issue but I don't have Polish. Polish do tend to be picked on more than other birds because of their mop tops.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

I have one little bantam rooster with my flock of about 48 hens and 4 other roosters. He used be a big bad bully - not even the big roosters would mess with him. But then he got pecked in the eye (could happen with any of them, not just the bantam) and is sightless on his right side. He's not such a bully anymore (LOL), but I worry that he'll get whiplash from trying to keep an eye on the big boys. He does FINE with the main flock, and roosts on the top bar near the #1 choice position. A couple of days ago, I even caught him sleeping underneath the wing of a friendly warm hen. Because of how he used to challenge and chase us, and bloodied my leg on one occasion, his name is "Little Sh!t".

 

[JedJackson]

I have bantams and large fowl together. I think it works fine, but they were raised together as chicks, and that makes all the difference. I wouldn't recommend introducing bantams to an established large fowl flock unless there was a lot of space.

I agree with Dobie about Polish. Even bantams can be a problem with them because some birds will pick incessantly at their crests. But if you want to try it then I see no reason not to so long as you keep a close eye on them. If you see signs of trouble, come up with a new plan. Trial and error.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You never know what will happen with living animals and their behaviors. In my opinion size isn't very important. It's not unusual for mature bantams to dominate mature full sized fowl. When you integrate you can run into the same problems whether you are integrating full sized chicks into a flock of mature bantams, bantam chicks into mature full sized fowl, or mixes.

One potential area of concern. A full sized rooster may mate with a bantam hen. When they mate the hen squats, which gets her body onto the ground. This way the rooster's weight passes through the hen and into the ground through her body, not just her legs. Most roosters are heavier than the hen of the same breed. That's nature's way of protecting the hen. The more difference in weight the more the risk, especially if the mating doesn't go according to plan which sometimes happens in puberty. There is some risk in this but many people have full sized roosters and bantam hens without problems. Sebrights are really small.

We have space for the bantams to sleep in a separate coop and free range with the main flock or to live in the coop with the others…
The pekins are integrated and nobody minds them but they sleep in their own coop currently and the polish bantams were raised with the majority of the younger birds so do I separate those or try one flock?

My suggestion is to do what you are comfortable with. And go by what you see as opposed to what some stranger over the internet like me tells you what you might see. Pay attention, have a plan ready in case you need it, but I'd try the one flock.

 

[loonychickenlady]

You never know what will happen with living animals and their behaviors. In my opinion size isn't very important. It's not unusual for mature bantams to dominate mature full sized fowl. When you integrate you can run into the same problems whether you are integrating full sized chicks into a flock of mature bantams, bantam chicks into mature full sized fowl, or mixes.

One potential area of concern. A full sized rooster may mate with a bantam hen. When they mate the hen squats, which gets her body onto the ground. This way the rooster's weight passes through the hen and into the ground through her body, not just her legs. Most roosters are heavier than the hen of the same breed. That's nature's way of protecting the hen. The more difference in weight the more the risk, especially if the mating doesn't go according to plan which sometimes happens in puberty. There is some risk in this but many people have full sized roosters and bantam hens without problems. Sebrights are really small.



My suggestion is to do what you are comfortable with. And go by what you see as opposed to what some stranger over the internet like me tells you what you might see. Pay attention, have a plan ready in case you need it, but I'd try the one flock.

Thanks for the response. I was more just curious about opinions and what other people think and do. More information is always better. I had my own plan before this was posted I just wanted to know what other people had experienced.
I have some bantams integrated with my main flock and the polishes were raised with 12 other large fowl breeds and actually are the ones who do the picking on not the ones getting picked on- its really funny to see those tiny mop heads chasing large birds around actually.
We have back up plans in place if the bantams arent safe in the large flock with a space for them incase and would never do anything without supervision.
Its more curiosity than advice.

 

[Balaw_chicks]

I also have some bantam in our flock mixed with large chickens although they’re not of the same breed as you mentioned above. The flock was pretty fine, its even funny how our 3 year old hen who we re-introduced in our flock (she used to be the top hen) is now below in the pecking order to a year old bantam hen.

 

[loonychickenlady]

I also have some bantam in our flock mixed with large chickens although they’re not of the same breed as you mentioned above. The flock was pretty fine, its even funny how our 3 year old hen who we re-introduced in our flock (she used to be the top hen) is now below in the pecking order to a year old bantam hen.

We ended up half splitting them. The sebrights cause they fiesty and the bug chickens cant catch them so they stayed with the larger flock but the pekins have their own mini flock.
We had fhe same thing with the top hen after returning from hatching babies… shes climbing quickly though. Itll settle back into place though don’t worry.