Mixing bantams and standard poultry together

[orionburn]

Hi all. Still a newbie to the forum although I've been lurking for the past few weeks doing a lot of reading. I've done some searching but haven't found anything in regards to a question I have.

We currently have two chickens along with a few other small animals. Our new chicks should arrive around the first week of September. The kids wanted to do some bantams for 4-H so we ordered 6 of those total along with 4 other standard breeds of poultry. I know that once the chicks have grown enough to be placed out in the coop that we should let the birds see each other for awhile before letting them "mingle."

Will the bantams be ok with the bigger birds, or would we need to keep them separated? Our hopes are to get two pairs of bantams and eventually hatch eggs down the road. I'm going to begin adding onto our existing coop to make room for the new kids but wondering if I should build a separate coop for the bantams.

Thanks for any advice you can give!

 

[lurky]

I keep mine seperate, but i have read if they are raised together its not usually a problem. I think the biggest issue would be the big roosters trying to mate the bantams when they are bigger

 

[cluckychick]

All of mine are together. Serma, Bantam Cochin, OEGB, Frizzles and Silkies are in with my standard Orps, RiR, and Aust. They all were raised from day olds together and I have not had any issues. They are aprox. 21 weeks old now.

 

[orionburn]

Thanks for the replies. I was guessing that the new chicks would probably be ok together but we'll just have to wait and see how our two older birds react to them. If we have to separate them it won't be a problem. We have some extra pens that could serve as short term coops until I could get another one built.

 

[scooter147]

I have a mixed flock of bantams and standard breeds. Mine do fine. Generally the standard breeds are higher in the pecking order.

I have three feeders spread around the coop to make sure they all have access to feed. This arrangment has worked fine for years.

 

[jessupfamily]

We have always had them mixed. Some were raised together and some have been introduced at various ages. We make sure to have a roo for each size group. It keeps it in order that way. We've never had any issues from size.

 

[Nugget]

We have 1 bantam with our standards. The standard rooster bred her and sliced her neck on both sides trying to hold on to her with his beak. She survived and that was one of the reasons we got rid of our roosters.

She made an alliance with the alpha standard hen who sees her as no threat. This protects her from pecks from the more submissive standards. It's kind of cute to watch!

 

[chiknlady]

All of my chickens and even ducks hang out together...the banties will be lower on the pecking order, but over time the dominant birds, bantam or standard will set the rules for the flock...Now if you notice problems you may need to separate them so have a plan B just in case...congratulations!

 

[orionburn]

I know the ratio is supposed to be one roo to ten hens. The bantams will (hopefully) be the only ones where we'll have roos since the rest of the chicks on order are pullets. Two out of the 6 sebrights are going to a friend that is also in 4-H. We'll keep the remaining 4 if we get lucky and end up with one male and three females. We're kind of taking our chances on the two mille fleur for now. If we would end up with two roos we could probably talk our friend into taking one of them.

So...if we ended up two bantam roos how much of a problem could it be? I'd like to keep them all free range of course, but if we have to we'll trade off on letting one out at a time. I'm just afraid our girls are going to get too much attention if we do that.

I'm fairly well informed on everything else when it comes to chickens, but their reproductive nature is something I need to get some more knowledge on.

 

[Kanchii]

Mine mixed with no problem, though you'll have to watch them carefully. There is always pecking and fighting when you introduce new birds, even some blood, but just make sure the bantams aren't going to actually be killed.