Keeping Bantams With Standards

Most likely you will not be able to keep them together. Mine can run together if they are out of their lots, but even with large lots the boys will not tolerate each other around their hens.

Also, when going to roost there can be serious issues with small ones being around big chickens.

 

My ONLY Roo is the bantam - only have standard HENS - and they get on GREAT!
I won't add another ROo - well not yet anyway.... perhaps one day. Right now my little ROo takes good care of all his girls - the big and the small!

 

They'll get along after the kerfuffle of introductions are over. Bantams don't know they're bantams and neither do standards. Keep them separated behind a wire divider for a week or two so that they can get used to each other without getting hurt. The two roos worries me more. Hopefully they'll learn to live together but a lot of times they have to live separate lives. Keep a good eye on them and be ready to split them up if there's bloodshed.

 

I have a sebright in with standard size hens.
It's true she thinks she's a big girl and stands up for herself, but I still feel bad for her because she gets stepped on a lot.

 

My neighbor has a Brahma roo and for a while had a bantam silkie roo as well. They got along fine, but the Brahma was the dominant one and in charge of the hens. The silkie roo understood that and he never challenged it or tried to mate with the hens. There was a small "fight" when first introduced, but it was nothing more than what my silkie hen did when I first introduced a pair of silkie roos into her pen. She beat the crap out of them by pulling a few feathers and chasing them around a bit and when she decided they knew she was in charge, she stopped.

 

I keep my bantams with my standards and had no problems when they free ranged. I moved to a place where I can't free range anymore and all hell has broken loose. I have to keep them together for the time being, but I plan on building a bantam coop as soon as it warms up. My coop and run are large but there really isn't any place for the bantams to get out of the standard's way. After one of my bantam hens was killed, I gave one hen away and moved the other into the retirement room in the coop with my two old standard hens. The standard rooster was the main problem and the little hens took a lot of abuse. Unless you have an extremely large coop or you free range I wouldn't recommend keeping the two sizes together. A lot of people say the bantams are feisty, but the majority of the time they deal with a lot of abuse.

 

I have a mixed flock, and they get along fairly well. I think it depends on the rooster. I have 3 roosters, and the little Japanese is the dominant one. I have hens as small as golden Sebrights and d'uccles and as large as Jersey Giants. They don't get to free range at all in the winter, and besides a runty cochin being picked on by everybody, they work out their problems. We did have an EE cockerel that was just plain nasty to everyone, and he had to be removed. Now it's fairly peaceful.

 

Personally I think the real problem is the standard roo with the bantam hens. When I got 4 chicks last year 1/2 where pullets.

I had to cull the EE cockerel because he was mating with my bantam cochin pullet and the size difference was TREMENDOUS, she did not appreciate it at all.

Keep in mind that I culled him in the summer and she is still not laying, so she was not mature enough for it at all. Just something to keep in mind.

 

Does it make any difference if they are all raised together? (No Roo in this equation)
We're adding birds into a new yet-to-be-built coop and wanted to get a mix of standards and bantams. You know, ordering them all at once and keeping them in the brooder then transferring all of them to the new coop?

We'll keep the 5 standards we already have in the old coop.

Will that work? (please say yes, oh please say yes!)