Brooding Bantams with Normal Chicks

[TRoB]

I put two BB Red Bantams and three Black Sex Links into a brooder together today. Can any problems arise from Bantams and normal chicks being in a brooder together or will everything be A-OK?

 

[lady feathers]

I started mine out together for the first week or so... only reason I seperated them was I had a very large number of chicks 100+ including some Drk cornish meat birds I was afraid after a few weeks that my silkies may get roughed up a bit. The silkies are still with some standard size chicks that are 1 week younger (the silkies not the standards are the brutes). With only a few chicks if you have plenty of room in your brooder I wouldn't worry about it unless you notice a problem. I have two BSL in with them (they are such sweeties). If you do notice problems you can just put up a divider or seperate them at that point!

 

[Frannabelle]

Last summer I brooded bantam silkies and cochins with standard polish, chanteclers and cochins and no problems at all. In fact, the silkie was quite independent and bossy!

 

[chickengrl]

I had very good luck brooding my Japanese bantams with large fowl chicks. I was worried about this issue as well. Just keep a close eye on them so that they aren't getting run over and they should really be just fine. They even went though that rowdy stage and the big ones would jump at the bantams to play fight and they were so quick they would just get out of the way. It may matter what type of bantams, the spunkier ones may do better. Good luck with them. It should be fine.

 

[gryeyes]

I've brooded bantams with large fowl chicks without a problem. I did keep one set of a couple banties separated from the others by hardware cloth for a couple of days, while the little bantam chicks got their strength up (I hatched the all) before letting them all run around together. The banties get bowled over by the larger chicks at first, so they need to have their land legs ready.

Then they learn to get out of the way, and if not, pop up again pretty quickly. As pecking order in the brooder develops, the bantams are all over the place in status because their size means nothing.