Is variety the spice of life? Mixed-breed flock questions!

[newchickychick]

So far, we've got QUITE a wide range of chickens.
Barred rocks, olive eggers, and a potential australorp or marans (or two) are in our oldest chick batch (6 weeks, out in the coop/run). We're planning on not keeping any of the roosters from this batch. We had 50/50 hens to roos just based on combs/wattles at this age. (Well, 8-9 hens and 10 likely roosters)

We're hoping to keep Polish as our roos. We plan to have 15-20 hens per roo minimum, of course, and with the following coop/run; We've got a decently sized coop/run nearly finished (30' x 15' coop, run is going to wind up closer to 60'-70' x 15' or maybe longer). So we're hoping space will be a motivator for peace.

In our youngest chick batch, we've definitely got (y'know, assuming some weren't mislabeled );
- 5 Americanas
- 3 Sapphire Gems
- 2 complete mysteries
- 2 possible RIRs?
- 4 Silver Laced Wyandottes
- 5 Polish (Tolbunt, 2 Splash, 1 Blue or Black with white, and 1 Gold laced)
- 1 Crazy Cackle Toppie
- 1 Lakenvelder
- 2 Cochins
- 4 Phoenixes/Yokohamas
- 3 Buff Orpingtons

Our next batch will be another 10 mysteries and another 10 guaranteed 'top hats' (so spitzhauben, polish, etc.) from Cackle to hopefully bump up the Polish number.
With a wider variety of different chicken breeds, and quite a few Polish, is it less likely the Polish roos we want to keep will be subjected to pecking/picking and will be happy roos? So far, all the baby chicks have gotten along SWIMMINGLY. No Polish (nor the Crazy Cackle), or any chick at all for that matter, have had their head feathers pecked/feathers plucked at all. We will be keeping only hens from the oldest batch, so the roos would come from this batch or the next so they'd be younger than the older hens (older by about 4 weeks) or a future batch if none of these wind up with good personalities. We are more than happy to wait for the right rooster, or roosters, to come along.

Will that be better or worse that the roos are younger than our oldest we'll be keeping the hens from? I know it's something regardless we will need to keep an eye on, and be sure to keep the peace if it simply doesn't work. We plan to build a secondary coop inside the run that will have its own partition of run so we can introduce chickens smoothly for transition periods.
However, I'm wondering if it's better to have a widely mixed flock for less chances of bullying or if it's just impossibly difficult to keep Polish roos with non-Polish hens, even if there's plenty of other Polish hens. We of course plan to have the 'backup coop' in case some simply cannot handle living together. But I'd love to hear if there's been any success stories with very mixed flocks, or if there's been horror stories so I know what to look out for/be aware of.

 

[Mrs. K]

With chickens, today’s behaviors are no indication as to future behavior.

Some people can get bantam and full size to work together and sometimes it won’t work. You will have to wait and see.

You seem a bit worried about the polish roosters, are you not getting polish hens? I would worry more about them.

I think if you are going to have trouble it will show up around 3 months.

With chickens it is hard to plan for the wreck, cause it always seems to be something you didn’t see coming. You just have to adjust for peace in the flock.

 

[newchickychick]

With chickens, today’s behaviors are no indication as to future behavior.

Some people can get bantam and full size to work together and sometimes it won’t work. You will have to wait and see.

You seem a bit worried about the polish roosters, are you not getting polish hens? I would worry more about them.

I think if you are going to have trouble it will show up around 3 months.

With chickens it is hard to plan for the wreck, cause it always seems to be something you didn’t see coming. You just have to adjust for peace in the flock.

Oh we absolutely plan to have the hens as well! We want quite a few Polish so they’re not the “odd ones out”. But I’ve heard that Polish roos can be extra prone to being bullied so I’m hoping big variety makes no one “the odd one out”. So they’re my biggest concern because we want a more *typically* docile breed of Roo. (Though again I know there’s always plenty of roos that do not follow the breed standard no matter what breed they are ). We plan to keep their feathers trimmed so they can see better (we will not be free ranging but I figured it’s safer in case of scuffles and will be better that they can see to get to their food and water freely and feel more safe). We’re hoping to eventually wind up with 10+ Polish hens or so; they’re probably going to end up the biggest majority of any of the breeds. We’ve got a friend with some and fell head over heels with them. Getting the Tolbunt chick in this batch sold it for me. It’s still only two weeks old but is quite a ham.

I do recognize that sometimes it’s just down to the individuals’ behaviors and we can try to foresee everything and still be caught totally off guard.

It’s great to know that folks have made Bantams and LF work together. It gives me hope! We’re not delving into Bantams any time soon, but it is a future want. (We do plan to keep Bantams separately though - there’s another lovely spot of property near our house that has great room for a big covered run and coop)

Yes, absolutely we will do that. I appreciate the advice! Peace of the flock is utmost importance to us, regardless of our own feelings for sure. These will be pets as much as egglayers (and chick makers!) so their happiness is first and foremost. We are prepared to cull or rehome when necessary.

Thank you! 3 months is a great timeframe to know to be extra vigilant for a while. I will also be sure to have a cluttered run so everyone has escape routes and hidey holes they can’t get trapped in. I’m planning on setting up a chair (with a cover so I can keep it… somewhat poop free ) in the run so I can hang out with them for quite a long time to observe and intervene if things get out of hand.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

My male's are all good tempered with one exception (but he's in a different flock anyways so he doesn't count for this). My bantam polish male has never had an issue being picked on, despite having practically no peripheral vision because of his Crest.


Likely claims that polish males are more prone to bullying is because other roosters continue to put them lower in the male pecking order.

 

[newchickychick]

My male's are all good tempered with one exception (but he's in a different flock anyways so he doesn't count for this). My bantam polish male has never had an issue being picked on, despite having practically no peripheral vision because of his Crest.


Likely claims that polish males are more prone to bullying is because other roosters continue to put them lower in the male pecking order.

Thank you! That really helps me understand it a bit better. (Bantam Polish look so lovely. Exciting to see them kept as roos!) That makes me feel better about us being open to non-Polish roos. We want to keep only ones with wonderful temperaments as they are mostly there to look pretty and help make babies since we do not intend to free-range and are going all the routes we can for coop and run security.

We will just do the best we can and roll with the punches as they come. It's nice to know, however, it isn't a hard "don't do majorly mixed flocks with potential Polish roos!" as we're still relatively new to the chicken game. That's been my biggest fear getting started is we will do something that experienced chicken keepers will know it's a "never do" and we will not be in the know until it's too late. I'm a bit of a worrier. I love these babies so much so far and know this is will be a very long-term "hobby"/pet keeping interest of mine.