PLEASE I Need Advice on my flock

[shannonq88]

I have 3 groups on chickens. 1st group is 8 golden comets that are 1 year old and they are my "adults" my 2nd group (teenagers) is 6 golden comets and 1 rhode island red. My 3rd group (babies) is 3 gold sebright bantams 2 are roosters and 3 red sussex. I just mixed the adults with the teenagers about 2 weeks ago. They are still getting used to each other. Last night I took the babies and put them in a pen inside the coop so the adults and teenagers get used to seeing them. The problem I have is the red sussex are getting HUGE and they kind of trample over the bantams which are about 1/3 the size. They are both 2 months old. DO I take out the red sussex in 2 weeks and have them mix in with the adults and teenagers since they are the same size and leave the bantams in there for additional time since they are small? Or should I not separate the babies at all? I do not want to keep stressing out my adult flock by introducing so many groups of chickens in a short period of time. PLEASE PLEASE help me. thank you!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I always recommend that bantam and standards should be housed separately. Your bantam roosters should be fine but the hen may have problems, especially being from the youngest group. How big is the pen they are in, they might need more room if they are squishing each other. Two weeks is a long time in a smaller pen, if you separate the bantam out you run the risk of isolating the only hen from her bigger clutch mates, so I would leave them together but enlarge the pen if you are unwilling to keep two separate flocks.

 

[ChickenLegs13]

Seabrights are very small anyway, so I wouldn't mix them in with the big chickens until they were about full grown & quick enough avoid the big footed old hens.

 

[chickens really]

Your Bantams could have a hard time in the pecking order? If at the bottom they will be pecked on by the bigger birds.
A man I know keeps all his Bantams in their own pens. Not saying it cant workout but it could be a sad day too fine them beat up or dead?

 

[shannonq88]

2 of the bantams are roosters and the other is a hen. I do not have the proper set up or another coop to keep them seperated forever. Should i just wait about a month or so to mix them. Also, should I take the other 3 that I found out are actually New Hampshire Reds not Red Sussex and mix them with the other group. They are just as big if not bigger than the other chickens but they seem to be pretty fat and slow. The picture below is my 3 hampshires and 3 bantams

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[oldhenlikesdogs]

I would work on integrating asap, they are big enough, if you have problems with the bantam hen you might have to figure out something different for her. Hopefully your set up is big and you have places for them to get away from each other, Seabright are good flyers so she will go up to get away from other chickens. You do know one of you Hampshire are roosters too? If they are fat and slow they may be a meat breed like freedom rangers.

 

[chickens really]

Try it to let them go in with the flock for sure.
Have lots of roosts and hiding spots in case things get nasty.
Let us know how things go?

 

[shannonq88]

Some one else told me that the red is a rooster too, but he does not crow at all. I still need them to be mixed in the pen in the coop so the others can see them and get used to them for atleast a week, I just put them in on tuesday.

 

[shannonq88]

Can it really be a rooster even if it doesnt crow? I should prob not have 3 roosters then with the 18 hens?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Not every rooster crow at a young age, your Seabright matured quicker than the red, it's definitely a rooster. If your other two roosters are the Seabright than that might cause more troubles because they will probably mate the Seabright hen repeatedly. Be prepared to sort things out as they occur. It's the nature of chicken keeping.