I see folks with regular-sized chickens and bantams mixed together all the time. Is it wise? Do they get along? Can the larger chickens hurt the bantams? What is the best setting to mix different size chickens, if you do? Let’s face it, chickens are a lot more complicated creatures than folks give them credit for being. Their social order and even the personality of the flock could be a factor.
Rose & Poppy were together as chicks
The wisdom seems to come in the way small and large chickens alike are brought together. Twice now, I’ve had regular size and bantams raised from chicks together and they do just fine. They get along, they share their roost, food, water and treats with just the usual amount of chicken scuffles. Rose & Violet, my Black Copper Marans who were raised with my silkies, Poppy & Daffodil, even choose to sleep in my silkies’ coop sometimes instead of with the bigger girls.
I believe some of the wisdom of it also comes from the amount of space your chickens share. Do they get to free range? Are they confined to a large or small run? Are they crammed into a coop that’s too small to sleep at night? How many are there together? These are questions I would advise asking yourself when chicken math hits and you want to combine your chicken sizes. Additionally, what is the personality of your flock? Do you have some wicked hens or maybe a mean rooster? Do treats bring out the worst in your feather babies?
Charlotte was sure she could take Alice on
My problem comes when I try to integrate the bantams with other larger chickens in the whole flock. Even though I’ve tried putting the bantams in with tried and true integration methods, some of my hens are just plain mean. I realize the pecking order is a great part of the larger girls picking on the smaller girls but I’m not up for chicken blood baths on a continual basis. That’s not to say that some bantams don’t “rule the roost” because they do, it just hasn’t been my experience. I’ve even built a large 35×10 covered day run with doors that open individually into it to keep all the arguments to a minimum but I have found that not only do I need to keep my older girls separate from the rest of the flock, I also need to keep my silkies safe as well.
These two were fearless until I tried letting
them be with the big girls.
Yes, larger chickens can hurt the bantams because they have size on their side. It’s not to say they definitely will but they can. When I had a couple of bantam white-crested black polish hens and now, I have my two silkies , they are not only small but also have top knot feathers that obscure their view which makes staying out the way a little harder.
My two sweet & adorable silkies Daffodil & Poppy
So is there a magic formula for mixing regular size chickens with bantams? No. It is best to experiment with your flock according to how much space you have, if they were raised together, do they free range, are they confined, the number of chickens in your flock and even the personality of your flock.
5 Comments
My grandmother raised chickens for decades on her farm, several hundred hens at any given moment and she ALWAYS had a few bantams in the flock. Never any problems at all.
My first order of 25 included 4 frizzle bantams. 2 were the only roosters. Those roosters ruled the big girls.
Right now I’ve one little girl who is in with the big girls (Delawares). She’s from 2/2008 and has began laying again.
Sometimes it’s the breed or individual chicken. My Delaware are fine with the little ones. Though I did have a young rooster who I just got rid of. He was not so nice, nor was the young Maran. However the one rooster I kept never bothers the little ones even newborn chicks.
Any kind of chicken can live with any other kind of chicken. My mom threw all hers together. The resulting chicks were simply beautiful! A little white pearl banny rooster with black specks came from a glossy black-green banny mother and a huge white rooster. They also produced “twin” glossy black-green roosters with beautiful red necks and long black-green tail feathers. The only difference were their sizes: one looked like he’d been fed steroids, the other was a little banny. She was the best mother too. Those fat red hens never took care of their chicks, so, the little banny hen commandeered ALL of them. How she fit so many chicks under her and made them mind is a mystery…
I have large and bantams (including a silkie and frizzle) mixed together with 2 rabbits and they all get along. I was concerned at first that my huge frizzle rooster might hurt the bantam chicks but he ignores them.
I raised both together. I started with bantams then added 12, month old Rhode Island Reds, later added 6 White baby ducks and a few months later 25 white day old chicks. They all got along fine and slept in the chicken coop at night. One of the Little Bantam hens adopted the ducks as her own. I live in town now and really miss my chickens.