Ok to introduce Banties?

[hokankai]

So I have 8 15 week old standard sized girls. They are not particularly aggressive...meaning they don't pull each others feathers, peck at each other, force each other out of the way for food/water, besides the normal pecking order posturing. Anyway, I found a family who is looking to get rid of some cochin cross bantams and I was considering taking one or two in. Would this be a difficult thing to do? Would it be better to get one or two? How would I go about integrating?

This is my first flock and I have never integrated chickens...are they too old to integrate smoothly? Thanks!

 

[justbugged]

I have my banties in with the standard size girls. I rarely see any problems with them being mixed. I added the banties at about 8 weeks into the coop late one night. That way when they wake-up everyone is like okay with things. I do have watch that the new birds know how to get into the coop. But I have never had to watch any of the birds for more than three days. They seem to figure it out.

If you are getting bird from someone else you will want to quarantine them for about 30 days before putting them in with your chicks. That way you won't accidentally introduce illness to your existing flock.

 

[hokankai]

30 days for QT?! that's worse than quarantining new rats, and that was tricky enough but it only lasted 2 weeks. Yeesh!