Pure bred flocks vs mixed flocks - pros and cons please!

[Moon Daizy]

Hello,

Can anyone share some insight on the benefits and downsides of having a mixed flock (not hybrids, but an eclectic mix of different breeds) as opposed to a pure bred flock please! I don’t have a tonne of space available, so do need to keep my chicken maths quite sensible!! I don’t want to keep accumulating hens ….so I am thinking of going down the route of a mixed flock, no cockerel, with one broody hen in the mix, and hatching some eggs if I need to replenish any of my birds… but I want to be sure before venturing this way .

(I understand that if you have a cockerel with a mixed flock, you will end up with hybrids…)

My current thoughts are…..

If I had a single breed flock, I’d go for buff Orpington’s, but then they might all go broody (downside), but then (upside) you can get a cockerel and you can keep your flock going.

But, if I had a mixed flock with no cockerel, with one broody buff hen in the mix, I could still buy hatching chicks whenever I need to replenish my hens, but just not keep any cockerels that hatch out. What breeds generally work well together? I know hen personality is a variant and not a constant.


Can anyone share any other thoughts, good or bad, about either approach?!

What success stories do you have? With either mixed flock or single breeds or different approaches I’ve not thought of?


Thanks in advance

 

[DobieLover]

If all you want is a flock of chickens to enjoy and get eggs from, there is no reason to not only have a mix of breeds but mixed breeds (hybrids) and let them live as naturally as possible.

Una, another SF mix. This girl was half WLH.

I have had up to 17+ different pure breeds (LF to mid-size to bantams all together) with many Salmon Faverolles hybrids in the mix. My flock rooster is a SF. Everyone gets along just fine.

How well they get along has everything to do with their environment and the resources available to them. Lots and lots of space and lots of things in that space. This also includes adequate roost and nest box space and not being forced to occupy space designed at the recommended minimums for the vast majority of their time. The smallest space per bird for confinement my flock may see is 14 sq ft per bird and that is only for about a month total during winter when there is too much snow on the ground for them to leave the run into their pen. Otherwise, they have 1/3 fenced in pen to roam in addition to their coop/run.

Multiple males will change the "get along" factor. Sons eventually fight their fathers and without a multiple coop setup for them to have their own territories, this can get ugly. I literally just rehomed my senior rooster's latest son whom I wanted to keep. He looked very much like dad with a good disposition but with a tight pea comb so good for my cold winters but three days ago I found my flock rooster soaking wet and covered in blood. Bye bye junior.

As for your broodies... THEY decide who will be broody and when. You will need to manage this. You will need to be set up with broody breakers to break the ones you don't want to set and have a good place for the one you do want to set to do her thing. And because you don't want to keep (extra) males, you will need a place to pen them up to await their final fate be it a new flock or the soup pot.

A note on broodies... I strongly suggest you never permit more than one broody to do her thing at a time. It gets really messy when you have lots of hormonal, crazy chickens with chicks in tow roaming around. I did that last year and I won't this year. One at a time.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Hello,

Can anyone share some insight on the benefits and downsides of having a mixed flock (not hybrids, but an eclectic mix of different breeds) as opposed to a pure bred flock please! I don’t have a tonne of space available, so do need to keep my chicken maths quite sensible!! I don’t want to keep accumulating hens ….so I am thinking of going down the route of a mixed flock, no cockerel, with one broody hen in the mix, and hatching some eggs if I need to replenish any of my birds… but I want to be sure before venturing this way .

(I understand that if you have a cockerel with a mixed flock, you will end up with hybrids…)

My current thoughts are…..

If I had a single breed flock, I’d go for buff Orpington’s, but then they might all go broody (downside), but then (upside) you can get a cockerel and you can keep your flock going.

But, if I had a mixed flock with no cockerel, with one broody buff hen in the mix, I could still buy hatching chicks whenever I need to replenish my hens, but just not keep any cockerels that hatch out. What breeds generally work well together? I know hen personality is a variant and not a constant.


Can anyone share any other thoughts, good or bad, about either approach?!

What success stories do you have? With either mixed flock or single breeds or different approaches I’ve not thought of?


Thanks in advance

Mixed flocks are fun, especially when it comes to hatching the eggs from them. They're like a box of chocolates sometimes with the babies.

The only con, I can see with a mixed flock(Depending on how many of the same breed, & whether rooster is the same breed, or not), is the chance of getting a purebred from them will be either really low, really high, or not likely at all.

Example: I have a flock that's got lots of Malays, a couple Silkie Roosters, & an EE Rooster.
There's a total of 5 Malay Rooster/Cockerels, & 7 Malay Hens/Pullets.
Malays boys outnumber the 2 Silkies, & EE. So getting purebreds are more likely, but getting a few mixes will still happen, but it's not as high.

Other birds in this flock is: A Heritage Plymouth Barred Rock Hen, EE/Brahma cross Hen, Easter Egger Hen, Green Queen Hen, Olive Egger Hen, Blue Face/Oriental cross Hen, Marans/American Game X Heritage Plymouth Barred Rock Pullet, 2 Light Brahma Hens.

 

[Perris]

my experience is very similar to DobieLover's. The core pure breeds are Swedish Flowers (S) and Penedesencas (P), with assorted others past and present, and their hybrid offspring (H), which are sometimes very hard to tell apart from the pure breeds. They all get along fine, including the boys (4 of 6 in the photo here)

There is one very clear advantage to having a mixed flock: it contains more genetic diversity than a single breed flock, so if a disease or other challenge comes along, there should be more resilience and a better survival rate. In addition, if you acquire a single breed flock from a single source, there is likely to be quite a lot of inbreeding depression already. Different breeds from different sources are also likely to produce more robust hybrid offspring.

Less important factors are, a lot of people find a mixed flock more attractive to watch, and it's much easier to tell birds apart of course if their plumage varies: I find it hard to distinguish between my practically identical Penedesenca hens.

 

[Chichin Mama]

You already have a lot of great responses. I'll just add one more pro for mixed flocks. The different colored eggs are a huge plus in my book. I love my beautiful egg basket. Also, I can always tell who is having a problem laying, or who has laid any particular day because they all lay different colored eggs.

 

[Shadrach]

Birds of a feather flock together.
Okay, a trite saying but in the case of chicken, worth bearing in mind.
People do keep mixed breed groups and many such as DobieLover don't report issues that are directly related to having various breeds kept as a single group.
However, there are also many reports where people who keep two or more of a particular breed of those of the same breed sticking together. This doesn't mean the differing breeds don't manage to get along but chickens have and do show a preference for their own breed.

Of course, one can make chickens of any breed live with another, or many other breeds; it's called social engineering and in general accross many species it has problems. Unfortunately attempts to study this and come up with any other conclusion than everything is just fine tend to fall foul of todays political correctness.

In my experience it seems to break down something like this.
As one might expect giving a little thought to the problem family groups tend to have fewer social integration problems than different breeds thrown together.
Next comes breed.
Next similar appearance.
And finally size.

The above is not definitive but as a rough guide it's reasonable.

There are certain combinations that are more likely to give problems than others.
Mixing Polish and Silki with full sized breeds.
Mixing bantams with full sized breeds
Mixing game fowl with other breeds.
Mixing heritage brreds and cross breeds with high production breeds.

I have lots of examples of chickens prefering their own breed spread over twenty years of obseving this behaviour.

This picture gives a rough impression of the mix in the most recent mixed breed group I've observed.

Statistically the chances of the type of grouping seen in the following pictures is pretty low.

My preferance would be to have a single breed group, preferably related.
A lot will depending on how you keep your chickens. Give them lots of room and issues tend to be less

 

[Egghead_Jr]

It's a personal preference. I will say that if a person only wanted hens and eggs there is no need to specifically obtain a bird prone to brood. As replacement birds are easily obtained each spring from the feed store in an assortment of varieties. If you really wanted to hatch chicks then obtaining fertile eggs is easy and an incubator would be the way to go as attempting to plan a bird brooding and your timeline of hatching rarely go hand in hand.

For myself, after two years of keeping hatchery birds I knew I wanted to breed. Not mate and propagate chickens rather breed to standards of perfection. This was something for me and in so doing could be a part of the small group of poultry people who actually try to maintain the heritage breeds. Well bred birds are far nicer to my eye to see ranging than a motley crew of misfits. But that's me and my eye to what is beautiful. A well bred flock of one breed, even if all black or all white, is striking to behold.

 

[wrathsfarm]

For myself, after two years of keeping hatchery birds I knew I wanted to breed. Not mate and propagate chickens rather breed to standards of perfection. This was something for me and in so doing could be a part of the small group of poultry people who actually try to maintain the heritage breeds. Well bred birds are far nicer to my eye to see ranging than a motley crew of misfits. But that's me and my eye to what is beautiful. A well bred flock of one breed, even if all black or all white, is striking to behold.

I relate to this so much. Very well said.
Although I have both a mixed and a heritage breed flock I'm just in awe everytime I see the heritage flock in the yard. To see all the hens all one color and then the roo's color just pops.

My og's came from a hatchery but I'm trying to improve them towards SOP the best I can.

 

[Moon Daizy]

If all you want is a flock of chickens to enjoy and get eggs from, there is no reason to not only have a mix of breeds but mixed breeds (hybrids) and let them live as naturally as possible.
View attachment 3792950
View attachment 3792955

Una, another SF mix. This girl was half WLH.
View attachment 3792951

I have had up to 17+ different pure breeds (LF to mid-size to bantams all together) with many Salmon Faverolles hybrids in the mix. My flock rooster is a SF. Everyone gets along just fine.

How well they get along has everything to do with their environment and the resources available to them. Lots and lots of space and lots of things in that space. This also includes adequate roost and nest box space and not being forced to occupy space designed at the recommended minimums for the vast majority of their time. The smallest space per bird for confinement my flock may see is 14 sq ft per bird and that is only for about a month total during winter when there is too much snow on the ground for them to leave the run into their pen. Otherwise, they have 1/3 fenced in pen to roam in addition to their coop/run.

Multiple males will change the "get along" factor. Sons eventually fight their fathers and without a multiple coop setup for them to have their own territories, this can get ugly. I literally just rehomed my senior rooster's latest son whom I wanted to keep. He looked very much like dad with a good disposition but with a tight pea comb so good for my cold winters but three days ago I found my flock rooster soaking wet and covered in blood. Bye bye junior.
View attachment 3792952

As for your broodies... THEY decide who will be broody and when. You will need to manage this. You will need to be set up with broody breakers to break the ones you don't want to set and have a good place for the one you do want to set to do her thing. And because you don't want to keep (extra) males, you will need a place to pen them up to await their final fate be it a new flock or the soup pot.

A note on broodies... I strongly suggest you never permit more than one broody to do her thing at a time. It gets really messy when you have lots of hormonal, crazy chickens with chicks in tow roaming around. I did that last year and I won't this year. One at a time.

Thank you for your comprehensive reply. I wish I had as much space as you, but here in the U.K. you are very, very blessed if you have an outdoor space that big. My garden is considered pretty big for the majority of the U.K., and it is 120ft x 40ft. The girls will be kept in a predator proof coop/run that occupies once corner of the garden, but we will let them roam the majority of the garden at least once per day weather depending. We are on extremely heavy clay soil, and it is pretty water logged for the winter months. We have a fence across part of the garden so the dog and birds will be separate.

I do intend on keeping the girls busy with compost heaps, and growing food towers etc for them, amongst other boredom busters.

I think I’m going to start without a cockerel. Your flock is beautiful though! I’m sorry to hear you lost your young cockerel, that must have been sad.

I’ve got to go out now, so will try to reply to the rest of your comments and all the other lovely responders later

 

[DobieLover]

I’m sorry to hear you lost your young cockerel, that must have been sad.

He's just gone to a new flock. I re-home boys every year because I let my girls hatch every year. It's part of the flock management everyone who keeps chickens deals with.