Starting bantam chicks before standard chicks

ragerkid2

Songster
8 Years
Apr 16, 2011
661
8
131
Johnstown Pa
Hello everyone!
Quick question. I have a shipment of chicks coming in next week, and I wanted to get some bantam chicks this year too. My plan was to go to Tractor Supply and pick a couple up, but I'm worried about the little ones getting picked on by the bigger standard chicks. Would it be a good idea to get the bantam chicks a couple days before I get the standard chicks? That way they have time to adjust and grow a little before the "big" chicks come in? This is my first time dealing with bantam chicks so any help would be greatly appreciated!
:)
 
So you think maybe a weeks time would be better than a couple days?
Sure...they will grow a bit during a week.

However, the most important thing for them getting along is to be raised together as chicks. So even if you had ordered them all together from the same hatchery and they arrived in the same box, they would do fine.

The concern in raising bantams with large fowl is - will the roosters be too heavy for the bantam hens and possibly hurt them whilst mating? Will the large fowl breeds be too aggressive and bully the bantams? Some breeds are more aggressive than others.

I like to keep my bantams separate sometimes but not other times. I have a setup for them just in case it doesn't work out. Right now I have Nankins and large fowl. My Nankins are going to have to be separated from the large fowl roosters when they start mating, since Nankins are tiny tiny bantams.

So observe your flock and see what needs to be done for their happiness and health. Chickens are individuals and really, are kind of like people in that what works for one flock may not work for another flock- just because of their personalities.
 
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I raise them together all the time. Have about 60 in a grow out pen now that are marans , wyandotte bantams and plymouth rock bantams. I was hatching all three together over several weeks. I have three brooders and after every hatch moved the bigger older ones to the next brooder and finally all to the grow out pen when they were feathered out or mostly feathered out.
I do like to have the bantams a little older when mixing but in my opinion it really depends more about how many you have and I get more concerned when they get older.
As chicks there really isnt that much size difference as compared to when they are getting to a few months old to three, four, five months.
I watch to make sure the bantams are getting to eat and drink and really watch to make sure theyre not getting smashed when they pile to sleep. So of course those are bigger concerns when you have 60 over 6. And whether its 40 lf to 20 bantams or the other way around.
Sometimes the LF will bully the bantams but Ive had bantams bully the big guys too. That depends on the breeds and individuals.
I also have plenty of grown bantams living with LF and they do fine. I think too many factors to give a perfect answer. And like with a lot of issues with chickens the more crowded they get the more you can have problems.
Short answer for me. Make sure you have enough feeders and waters so little ones arent bullied away and keep numbers down or enough heat sources that theyre not piled up enough to smash the little guys and you'll be alright. And both concerns for me have been more so after a month or two old then in first few weeks.
 
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