Brahmas with Pekins ?????

[justcraig]

Hello everyone,

I hope that you may be able to help me out. Im quite new to keeping chickens - In fact Ive just reached my first month anniversary !!!

I have a bit of a problem. My flock consists of 2 brahmas, 1 hybrid (an Amber Comet) and 2 Pekin Bantam's.
All of these birds are young - approach 10 - 15 weeks old.

I was told to initially keep the Pekins seperate as they were particularly small when I picked them up. I have a run approx 50 ft square with a shed converted as a hen house. The pekins were set up in a rabbit run inside the main run so that they mixed with the larger birds.

this weekend I have attemptedto mix them properly. I did everything right (I think !!) - I popped the little 'uns into the hen house in the dead of night so that they all woke up together. They took a couple of pecks in the morning when I let them out but nothing that looked serious. Gradually it all settled down, however this evening (their second evening together) I noticed that they were being picked on a lot more. I followed quietly into the hen house and saw them being pecked a fair bit on the perches and so I have taken them out and put them back in their seperate area again.

I was advised that despite the size difference, these birds would all get along. The hybrid and brahmas occasionally square up to each other but nothing actually 'kicks off'. It's the poor old Pekins that seem to get into trouble.

Does anyone have any advise thatI could use of are these bird never going to get along due their size differences ???

Thank you very much for your help !!!

Best regards
Craig

 

[Chirpy]

Craig - Welcome to BYC! It does sound like you did things "right", that just doesn't always mean it will work out OR that it will work out quickly with no issues.

What I did to integrate my smaller/younger birds with my older hens was to divide my coop into two sections. The chicks were on one side and the hens on the other. That way, they saw and heard each other for a few weeks to get used to each other. Then, I started letting them outside in the run together during the day. Since I have plenty of space the little ones could easily get away if needed. I put them back into their separate roost areas each night.

After two weeks of that I opened up the coop and let them start to roost together. I had no serious issues at all doing this and everyone gets along just fine.

If you have that type of option you may want to try it. Otherwise I'm thinking they just need more time to work out the pecking order. But, as you are aware, you don't want your Pekins hurt while this is happening so you'll need to keep a close eye on things. You may also need to wait until they are all closer to the same size as the older hens before trying to put them together.

Good luck.