What Happens When You Mix Breeds?

[FlockHappy]

Right now I have some Barred Rock Hens--only three of them. My rooster and the rest of my hens died of some disease that some new hens brought in. Instead of getting more Barred Rocks I decided I would get some Salmon Faverolles. I only have one pen. Do you think I'll have to get rid of my barred rocks in order to safely have the Salmon Faverolles? I don't want mutt chickens, and I also don't want my barred rocks to pick on my Faverolles. (I read that Faverolles tend to be on the bottom of the totem pole)

 

[galanie]

Since hatchery barred rocks can be on the bossy side, I'd not mix them. If you want pure breeds, that goes without saying if you get a rooster.

On the other hand, it could be that they all get along fine so long as they are the same size when introduced to each other then it's been done slowly, as in putting a fence between them for a couple weeks.

 

[Illia]

Honestly bossy Rocks is all about individual temperament and strain. I always hear they're like most other chickens out there. The few I've had were.


But, if you don't want mutts, don't mix a flock unless you keep roosters separate and know who's eggs are who's. Roosters aren't choosy about breed or color.

The question is though, why do you not want mutts? Do you plan to breed and raise stock from your flock that is purebred? Are you looking to continue selling pet layers, or are you looking for a different market? Because if you don't want mutts because of their cheaper price or implied lesser buyer interest, sorry, but unless you've got good quality Faverolles or Rocks - Mutts go for the same price as hatchery stock, and/or in fact, mutts have good hybrid vigor and may lay better. Also if you had, for example, female Rocks and a male Faverolle you get sex-linked hybrids. Real easy to sell. If you had female Faverolles and a male non-barred or non-silver colored rooster, again, sex-linked.

 

[speckledhen]

Right now I have some Barred Rock Hens--only three of them. My rooster and the rest of my hens died of some disease that some new hens brought in. Instead of getting more Barred Rocks I decided I would get some Salmon Faverolles. I only have one pen. Do you think I'll have to get rid of my barred rocks in order to safely have the Salmon Faverolles? I don't want mutt chickens, and I also don't want my barred rocks to pick on my Faverolles. (I read that Faverolles tend to be on the bottom of the totem pole)

Any new birds will be picked on by established ones. That's just the way it is. Has not much to do with breed. I love my Barred Rocks. Generally, they are not pushovers in the flock, hatchery stock or not. I don't have Salmon Faverolles, but any new bird you add to an established flock is going to have to "run the gauntlet" till they work it out. And they may always be at the bottom, breeds aside. You can't stop pecking order, sorry.

If you have one rooster of a certain breed, only collect eggs from hens of his breed to hatch, even if you have hens of two or more breeds in with him. That way you have only that certain breed, no crosses. If you have two roosters of different breeds with hens of both breeds, you'll have no way of knowing which rooster is the sire of the chicks. You'd have to separate the hens with their respective rooster.

 

[FlockHappy]

The only reason I didn't want mutts, is because I wanted to be able to say for certain what a chick is when it hatches. I wouldn't want there to be any doubt.

 

[easteregger96]

I have a few mutts and mine happen to be my best chickens. I don't know if it's that way all the time or it just happened that way at my chicken house. I have two mutts. Polly is a easter egger and new hampshire red mix and Rosy is easter egger and dominique mix. They have the best attitudes. They talk to me more than the rest. And they love attention! They love to be held. They are in the same pen with their mothers. They are not aggressive at all.

 

[dandydoodle]

Well just because, you have two breeds doesn't mean you have to have mixed chicks. I haven't had barred rocks before but, I am willing to be their eggs are bigger then a faverolle egg. If the rooster you choose to have is a faverolle, when you decide to hatch out babies only put the tiny eggs in the bator. If you let your broodies do the hatching just keep a check on them and make sure they only have tiny eggs. If someone lays a big egg with them take it out. Or vise versa if you have a barred rock roo and only want barred rock babies only hatch out your large eggs.

I have Orpingtons, EEs and Faverolles and it is very obvious which eggs belong to whom. Brown large- Orpington, Blue- EE, small brown- Faverolle. I am sure you can do this to if you want too. Put your faverolles in a cage with in the run. That way everyone can see each other but not touch. Feed them and water them and everything in there for about a week to let everyone get use to each other. After a week take your faverolles out and put them in the run, put a lot of brightly colored toys in the run to distract from the faverolles and leave them about a week. Then stary taking the toys out one by one. This really helps, I have done it on more then one occasion.

Good luck,
Michelle

 

[Chickenaddict]

I happen to love my mutts more then some of my pure bred birds. You can get the neatest patterns, colors, ect. If you are worried about mixing them then just stick to 1 breed or keep the breeds seperated. When I bred seramas they were penned seperately in the winter to ensure they were pure once I started hatching early spring.. Late summer I turn them loose with the rest of the birds as long as I am not intending to hatch or sell eggs.

 

[Spangled]

Right now I have some Barred Rock Hens--only three of them. My rooster and the rest of my hens died of some disease that some new hens brought in. Instead of getting more Barred Rocks I decided I would get some Salmon Faverolles. I only have one pen. Do you think I'll have to get rid of my barred rocks in order to safely have the Salmon Faverolles? I don't want mutt chickens, and I also don't want my barred rocks to pick on my Faverolles. (I read that Faverolles tend to be on the bottom of the totem pole)

Yes, Faverolles do have that reputation in some circles and it's not without merit from my perspective.

If I really wanted Faverolles and wanted to keep my three other hens, also, I would build my three hens a summer tractor.

Then I would put my Faverolles and Faverolle rooster in the main pen where everybody would be living in the fall. When the Faverolles were 6 months old, I would put the three other hens in the coop with the Faverolles. Or I'd still wait until the Faverolles were 6 mos. old, then I might have set up a system where I let the Faverolles out of the main coop all day and then with just one hour of daylight left, let out the other hens out of their summer tractor and then they may interact a bit. But everyone will go home to their own coop each night. Over time, the older hens might want to move in to the original coop. The Faverolles will think that the yard is theirs if they are out all day and the old hens only get out late, near sundown, which makes the older hens feel lower on the totem pole and the Faverolles feel high up on the pecking order.

Most likely, the Faverolle rooster would prefer the Faverolle hens and protect them from any of the shenanigans of the older hens. But I think he will have to be 6 months old to be able to withstand the possibility of being henpecked.

The Faverolles would know the coop well and feel that the older hens were intruders and would act like the top dogs (as much as Faverolles can).

I would have been letting out my Faverolles during the late summer and feeding sunflower seeds at the edge of the old hens' summer tractor (while the old hens were still in there) so that they could be pecking very closely face to face, all eating together, getting used to each other.

Yes, I would definitely get a rooster because without the rooster the older hens might just take back over things because many Faverolles hens are a little meek.

Anyway, that's how I would do it. Not sure if that's useful for your situation or not. But at least it's a way that sometimes works when one wants to work with the pecking order system in a positive way to get the results that will be good for all involved.