I just bought 6 new breeds: rhode island red, buff orphongton, australorp, araucana (so called), black sex link, leghorn and have mature hens: 2 production red (i think), barred rock, australorp (thought it was a jersey giant but not large enough), and easter egger (i think). One lays a green egg. My plan is to keep them all together. My question is, if i raise them all together from chicks, will they get along? I raised some bantams from eggs and had trouble when introducing new chicks. One hen in particular would attack and kill the chicks. I know i have to wait til the chicks are grown and able to outrun the older ones to introduce them and i keep them in brood pens with hardware cloth facing the coop so they can all get used to each other. I just dont want a blood bath when i let them out. The ones i lost before were cornered and held down while the attacker pecked its brains out.
The coop is 108 sqft and im adding a 9x32 run all on the back of my pole barn with 12' wall sloping to about 9'. Roof follows the 4/12 slope of the barn roof. If i can keep 2 turkeys alive (One chick died already), i will have 20 birds in there.
