Introducing chickens

careyking

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Hi
This is my first time keeping chickens, intended to buy 4 pullets, which are Buff plymouth rock bantams which suit our needs. though it seems these won't be ready for a while locally, so decided to get a couple of hybrid white stars and introduce 2 plymouth rocks later. could i encounter any problems with this
 
There will more than likely be ructions, when the new hens arrive. Depending on the personality of the hens,and this can vary from breed to breed, strain to strain and from Individual to individual, There will be skirmishes. Normally this involves a few Kicks and flaps and the odd beakful of feathers plucked out, but occasionally it can be more serious with torn combs, blackened eyes and sometimes full on scalpings!!!
You will need to monitor how your birds behave towards each other.Initial Introductions are best done at night. place the new birds on the roost with the old birds, and let them out together in the morning.
Providing they have plenty of room, and multiple food and water sources, most Hens will settle down together without to much fuss within a few days.
 
Personnally I would not get the hybrids. They will have been immunised with live IB and ILT viruses and may infect the Plymouth Rocks when they arrive, particularly during the stresses of integration. Getting both viruses will make them rather ill, as we found out when we introduced Copper Stars to a 14 strong flock of Pedigrees. So my advice is stick with the original plan and get 4 PR's Carey.
 
Thanks for that, will sit it out and wait for the plymouth rocks, seems like there are too many negatives to consider
 
You may regret not getting the White Stars as for egg production and size of eggs they are hard to beat. Don't know how Rock bantams lay.
 
I agree about the White Stars, my friend has one, very attractive bird, and she's still laying occasionally at 5 years old. It is not unknown for problems to arise if you mix unvaccinated and vaccinated birds, but these are very rare occurences and should not put you off getting hybrids. Getting new chickens is always a step into the unknown and many and various things may happen, but none of them are inevitable and most of them are unlikely if you buy from a reliable source, quarantine your newbies when you get them, and give your birds sensible care thereafter. If you want a lot of lovely eggs, from friendly and attractive birds, having hybrids as part of your flock is a very good idea. My mixed flock of hybrids and purebreds have never had any problems, and I know this is the same for other much more experienced people than I am. Yes, hybrids may not go on laying for so many years as some purebreds, but during the time they are laying they will give you bigger eggs more frequently than most purebreds.

I expect you are finding that the bantams won't be ready for a while because purebreds are hatched in the spring and so are not POL until they are 6 months or so, ie in August onwards. Hybrids are often hatched in larger batches over the winter and so are ready from February onwards throughout the year. If you get a couple of hybrids now, it will be more difficult to introduce your bantams in a few months' time because the hybrids will by then be fully grown, in lay, and will resent the introduction of young, less mature, smaller birds. It will be possible to integrate them, but the process will need care. In any case, even if you got two different types of birds at the same time from different breeders, you would not be able safely to put them in together straight away, because each group would need to be kept separate from the other for 2-4 weeks to allow for quarantine and the prevention of possible cross-infection. However, integration would then be easier if both lots were about the same age and none of them had started to lay, as younger birds tend to be less dominant than mature ones and the territory would be new to all of them.

Of course, the simplest plan would be to decide which kind of bird you wanted to keep, hybrids or purebreds, and get them all at the same time from the same place, hence no disease transmission problems from mixed sources and the birds would know each other and be less likely to fight. If you started in this way, they would all be in together from the start with no need for quarantine as there would be no other birds in your flock which they might possibly infect. If you wanted a mixed flock, you could choose a variety of hybrids as many suppliers sell a choice of breeds that are all kept in together, which would know each other, and this would reduce squabbles when they formed your flock.
 
Thanks for a wealth advice
I guess they might not be as productive as hybrids though they will be pets as much as layers so aesthetics were important to us, am told they have longevity and are hardy which was also good. I suppose if you like the look of a particular bird then you'll be prepared to accept 60 less eggs a year
 
I'm not sure at what age the breeder could reliably tell whether they were boys or girls, but if you decided to go for the bantams and they were all from the same place, you might well be able to get them several weeks earlier, as growers, and then you'd have all the satisfaction of bringing them on and watching them grow to adulthood and that wonderful first egg! You'd need to feed them growers food until they were ready to lay, but it's very interesting seeing them develop and they would become tame more quickly if you got them at a younger age.
 
If you are keeping chickens mainly as pets then you would probably be better steering clear of White Stars, they are fantastic layers as Chuck says and mine are great characters but they really aren't the friendliest of birds, very flighty.
 
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