Mixing of breeds?

[Anonymous]

Hi all
I am new to having hens and have 5 loman hens, all laying now in their first season...great craic, friendly and kids love them. I was considering adding a few more hens maybe pure bred light sussex. Any advice on wheather these breeds mix well and are light sussex the friendly type and if so would it be ok to mix them at pol stage? As you can tell i have been affected by this chicken buzz it does seem to take over, but worth it. Thanks in advance .Damien

 

[Lucylou]

Hi Damien,

I have 6 chooks of sevaral different breeds & they're fine together. They were all hatched within a month of each other so basically the same age. But previously to this I had a few mature chooks that I took over from someone, they were a mixture including a bantum hen & cockerel & 3 LF. They were also fine together so I'm sure you'll be OK mixing yours. It'll only be the introductions that might take a little care.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi lucylou,

Thanks for your feedback, muck appreciated. I am going to pick up 3 light sussex hens this weekend. They are about 16 weeks old and our original girls are about 26 weeks old. I am going to leave them apart for about 3 weeks but in view of each other and then add them at night time. Hopefuly my gilrs will be nice to their new tenents , fingers crossed. Is this the correct way to mix or is it just trial.... and hopefuly not error.

P.S what does LF mean ..... sorry for my ignorance

Thanks Damien

 

[Lucylou]

Hi Damien,

LF = large fowl as opposed to bantum (took me a while to work it out :lol: )
There will be others on here with more experience of introducing chooks than me but when I did it with my last flock, I introduced 2 POL to the mature birds & did just the same as you.
I divided the run into 2 with plastic netting (the builders orange stuff) & as it was summer, made a temporary coup out of an old desk Took about 2/3 weeks before they were happy together but it worked. I then introduced them into the main house one night.

As the little bantum was small she managed to squeeze through the gap round the size & mixed with both groups quite happily

 

[Tim]

Hi Damien,

Good advice from LucyLou. Introductions can be smooth or can be horrible (until the pecking order is established).

I have had placid strains of Light Sussex and really fiesty strains over the years, the breeder should be able to tell you if their strain is placid or not.

If you have the space, quarantine the new birds for a few weeks to keep and eye open for illness, then, it would be ideal to start them off living close to one another (a temporary fence works) so they can, see, hear and smell one another. Let them settle, then when you do put them in together, put them into the house at night and be there first thing in the morning to let them all out.

There is an article on the main site: Introducing New Chickens that you should find useful.

Good Luck, let us know how you get on!