Mixed Flock Questions

[Sadness Child]

I raise bantams, the standard roo will mate with your bantams. Id have tow flocks, if you don't want medium sided chicken coming form your bantams or standards. U can have them side by side.

I do not mind that, I will not have a flock of all one chicken, so I would be breeding crosses anyway. I still might hatch some in case my new chickens are not to my liking.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Keeping A Mixed Flock!

That's for ducks and chickens, not standards and bantams

 

[Duckbreeder2020]

That's for ducks and chickens, not standards and bantams

Oops sorry I must have read something wrong!

 

[Sadness Child]

Oops sorry I must have read something wrong!

It is okay, it will be a good reference when I move out of my moms house.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have a coop and run to comfortably contain 16 standard size chickens.

It always concerns me when I read something like this. What are you basing this on, some kind of magic numbers you probably read on here? I've seen numbers on this forum vary from 1 square feet per chicken to 15 per chicken for the coop. Some mention run space, some don't. The quality of your space matters just as much or more than square feet. The personality of your individual chickens matter. It takes more room to integrate than after they are integrated. You may have plenty of room, I don't know, but shoehorning the maximum of chickens in a space is often a challenge.

I think you've got your answer as far as can it possibly work with bantams and full size chickens. It can work but sometimes it doesn't, even if they are all the same size. Having a second boy in there adds to the challenge.

I'm not sure what your goals are or why you want two boys. If we knew why you want to do this other than just for different eggs we might be able to to make some suggestions to better help you meet your goals. If we knew what room you have to work with we might be able to offer suggestions. Is your real concern that the bantam eggs will not be fertile?

 

[Sadness Child]

I have a coop and run to comfortably contain 16 standard size chickens.

It always concerns me when I read something like this. What are you basing this on, some kind of magic numbers you probably read on here? I've seen numbers on this forum vary from 1 square feet per chicken to 15 per chicken for the coop. Some mention run space, some don't. The quality of your space matters just as much or more than square feet. The personality of your individual chickens matter. It takes more room to integrate than after they are integrated. You may have plenty of room, I don't know, but shoehorning the maximum of chickens in a space is often a challenge.

I think you've got your answer as far as can it possibly work with bantams and full size chickens. It can work but sometimes it doesn't, even if they are all the same size. Having a second boy in there adds to the challenge.

I'm not sure what your goals are or why you want two boys. If we knew why you want to do this other than just for different eggs we might be able to to make some suggestions to better help you meet your goals. If we knew what room you have to work with we might be able to offer suggestions. Is your real concern that the bantam eggs will not be fertile?

I have a 4'x8' coop, and another 4'x4' coop, the run is 17'x50' with a possibility to expand that space to a 34'x50' run. I have been working on making a compost pile for the chickens, and I have already made a playground for them. They have food and water during the time they are outside.

All I really want is to keep my 1 bantam because she is my favorite chickens and she is the nicest/most docile chicken I have ever owned. And when she was alone with the flock of standards I noticed her getting bullied and pushed away from the food, water, and treats I give them.

The only reason why I am saying that there is a possibility to expand the run is because I live in a rural town that has some chickens in the neighboring yards, and so far I have had coyotes vist my yard a total of 5 times, and in those five times they have killed a total of 13 of my chickens, and at one point I went a whole season with no chickens. So the only place where I can expand my run is along to place where the coyotes are getting in, so it will be expensive to take proper precautions to make sure the coyotes cannot jump over. But ever since I adopted a Border Collie Whippet mix, he has killed 4 chickens of mine all of them were the bantams, but he also fended off a coyote who came into our yard. If I extend the chicken run and the coyote jumps directly into it there is nothing my dog can do because he will not be able to get into the chicken run.

Sorry if I typed to much.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You did not type too much. One of the aggravating things on here in trying to respond to people is getting enough information. I appreciate people trying to answer questions instead of leaving us hanging.

I personally would not try to put that many chickens in that, mainly because of coop space. In your climate they should be able to be outside practically all day every day but it's still pretty tight. Run space looks good though. I don't now how many I'd suggest total. In your climate and with that big run you might be able to go more than the 12 you once had (being careful about integration) but I would not go much higher.

Have you tried having different widely spaced feed and water stations? That might stop the bullying.

I'm not sure which chickens you plan to keep. It sounds like the bantam, the rooster, and maybe one or two hens? Not sure if you are planning on bringing in new chicks or buying older pullets. That can affect how you integrate them. Bantam chicks especially can be hard to sex.

I'm having trouble coming up with suggestions. That is a nice sized run even if you do not expand it. Having two separate coops helps with integration and such but may not help that much with total number of chickens you can keep. You might be able to train different groups to sleep in certain coops or they may all want to crowd into one. I've had both happen. Maybe you can split the run, put a fence across it and have one coop in each end with its own flock.

Living in town coyotes can be harder to deal with than in the country. I personally would not be shooting a gun when somebody was living right next door. Electric fence works well if your town allows it. You could maybe try trapping. I'm in favor of removing any predator that is hunting your property but that is only a temporary solution. There are always more out there. And you are not always there when they come. A good fence is the best solution. They can jump a lot better than many people believe. And they are smart, they can find ways in, whether that is digging, jumping, or finding a weakness somewhere like at a gate.

Your dog is as big a threat as the coyotes are. It has to be fenced out too. Unless it is out there 24/7 it's no that much of a help with coyotes either. It cannot keep coyotes away if it is sleeping inside with you.

 

[Sadness Child]

You did not type too much. One of the aggravating things on here in trying to respond to people is getting enough information. I appreciate people trying to answer questions instead of leaving us hanging.

I personally would not try to put that many chickens in that, mainly because of coop space. In your climate they should be able to be outside practically all day every day but it's still pretty tight. Run space looks good though. I don't now how many I'd suggest total. In your climate and with that big run you might be able to go more than the 12 you once had (being careful about integration) but I would not go much higher.

Have you tried having different widely spaced feed and water stations? That might stop the bullying.

I'm not sure which chickens you plan to keep. It sounds like the bantam, the rooster, and maybe one or two hens? Not sure if you are planning on bringing in new chicks or buying older pullets. That can affect how you integrate them. Bantam chicks especially can be hard to sex.

I'm having trouble coming up with suggestions. That is a nice sized run even if you do not expand it. Having two separate coops helps with integration and such but may not help that much with total number of chickens you can keep. You might be able to train different groups to sleep in certain coops or they may all want to crowd into one. I've had both happen. Maybe you can split the run, put a fence across it and have one coop in each end with its own flock.

Living in town coyotes can be harder to deal with than in the country. I personally would not be shooting a gun when somebody was living right next door. Electric fence works well if your town allows it. You could maybe try trapping. I'm in favor of removing any predator that is hunting your property but that is only a temporary solution. There are always more out there. And you are not always there when they come. A good fence is the best solution. They can jump a lot better than many people believe. And they are smart, they can find ways in, whether that is digging, jumping, or finding a weakness somewhere like at a gate.

Your dog is as big a threat as the coyotes are. It has to be fenced out too. Unless it is out there 24/7 it's no that much of a help with coyotes either. It cannot keep coyotes away if it is sleeping inside with you.

Ok, I have really thought about it, and I figure that I am going to keep my Buckeye boy who is the very best rooster I have ever had, and maybe 1-3 hens, and the one bantam. I have been looking around locally, and there are people not to far away who actually sell Cream Legbars that have been on my bucket list ever since the coyotes killed my other 2. I would like at least 2 of those, I know that, and I will probably get them as chicks if possible, then I will probably get 2-3 other great egg layer chicks from tractor supply or a local feed store. As for the bantams, there is a local feed store that normally brings in assorted bantams from Privett Hatchery. Nobody ever buys them all, so they have about 10 of them when they are about 10 weeks old, so you can easily sex them by looking at them. I would probably get maybe 4-5 of them. If my math is correct that gives me 1 standard rooster, 5-8 standard hens, and 5-6 bantam hens.

I am glad to hear that they have enough run space, and I do realize that my dog is not a very good coyote solution, but that will have to do for now cause my parents won't let me get any other form of protection other than the fences I have now. (Which I have made as predator proof as possible, but it still has way to many problems.)

I always lock my chickens in a dusk, and despite our homemade chickens coops we have never lost any of our chickens at night, and we have not seen any signs of something trying to get into the coops.

I also failed to mention this before, but the coyote attacks were in the middle of the day when my mom was home.

I also gave up on keeping a bantam rooster because the only real pros he had was that I could sell fertile eggs or bantam chicks, which I would not get much money out of because they would be crosses.