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Need some advice on chickens

J

Justin SE IOWA

Member
Today I bought 12 white leghorns that are about 6 months old. They are the only breed in the chicken house at the moment. My son wants to get some silver laced polish chickens also. Will they all get along? I have never had 2 different breeds at the same time? Thanks for your helpful advice!
 
Swore I would not answer chicken posts anymore. I'll give you a response and 50 experts will come along and tell you about how they know the opposite. I raise chickens, eat chickens, collect eggs and even show them. I have raised Polish. I have Polish now. The rare one will live with non crested breeds but they are nervous and flighty as a breed and do not see well. They will panic when pecked by a sighted bird and eventually crash about. This can bring on a full fledged attack. I have tried it many times and had them scalped or killed. Now you can listen to all the folks tell you how they have done it and are still doing it and make your own choice.
 
the 2 breeds that get along just fine together are original recipe, and extra crispy. never had a problem with them.
 
I have never had any silver laced polish chickens. I have had many other breeds. I never had any trouble as long as the birds you where mixing where about the same size. Also never just do 1-2 new birds. The others will kill just 1 or 2.

So if you do it I would get 8-10 birds about the same size as what you currently have.
 
Thanks guys. I think I will hold off till spring. The new breed will be for 4h so I will wait till I build another coop for the other breed. Thanks again
 
Spray both groups with a little WD40 then they will
smell the same. Leave them in the coup for a couple
of days then good to go.
 
If you could put the new chickens in a wire cage in the hen house for a week or so then they'd probably get along when you let them in together although Leghorns are so stupid you never know what they might do.
 
Leaving the Crane [Mo.] Broiler Festival yesterday, I walked past a very big cage display of all sorts of chickers [dont know much anything about them] and at the end table two ladies were feasting on the BBQ chicken, beans, pot. salad, etc. very delicious.
As I walked past I couldn't help myself, I asked them "Those chickens ever wise up to what's on the menu here???" "Nope, they never do."
 
I think you are making a smart move keeping them separate. You can try taking an extra rooster and integrating him into the leggerns but trim his crest up both sides so he can see what is coming at him. Still not likely to work, but you can try. Imagine being put into a room with a group of people and you have blinders on. Then imagine they come up from your blind side randomly and hurt you. Won't take long to get you pretty freaked out. Same thing happens to Polish.

I'll give you one more word of advice since you are doing 4-H. Your kids project will likely end up being a local fair. Most chickens need to be isolated in individual cages while being prepped for show if you want them to look REALLY good. This is especially true for Polish and other feather breeds. Your kids might find Sussex or Wayandottes, both of which have speckled or laced varieties, to be an easier starter chicken.
 
Vicious creatures
don't know breeds that well.
But if your chickens have already established their pecking order,
introducing any new ones in a small area is gonna start a bloody fight.
I gave up on adding, unless I just build another coop.
Keep them, when egg laying slows or they are getting older, eat em and start over.

Worst case was giving a few chickens to a friend out of my established coop. He gave one back (escape artist)
Was only a week, and all my chickens grew up together.
Put their sister back in the coop. Yep, they killed her.
And after they ended her, they started fighting among themselves,
like they had to redo the order or bloodlust, whatever.....stupid birds...
 
If you are going to add chickens to a flock, make sure that when there is a fight that the loser can run off into a hiding spot. Cock pits (cock fighting) are round for a reason, to prevent the loser from running away and hiding in a corner. When we had chickens we had some nasty stuff that looked like tar that we applied to the spots that other chickens were pecking, apparently it was also nasty tasting and the chickens wouldn't pick at the injury any more. You do need to check on the chickens several times a day to catch a problem before it gets bad.

All chickens are cannibalistic, having a run with access to plants and bugs helps. Being bored seems to encourage it.
 
I have "integrated" chickens before - no one was bussed
across town to go to school or anything. I've always been
successful but they were close in age. I have a LARGE cage
that I put in the center of the coop with the new chickens in it.
Feed and water are in there with them. I leave them about a
week and then I open the door to the cage. I leave the cage a
couple of days in case they need to run back in there. Never
had a problem.
 
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