Need Help With The Mixing Chicken Breeds Confusion
When you get a few chickens in your brand-new backyard chicken coop that you have bought.
It probably will not be long before you are wanting to introduce some variety to your flock.
And why not…
Mixing chicken breeds brings with it different colours, chicken antics, and different egg colours.
Mixing Chicken Breeds, The Big Question
There are so many different types of chicken breeds out there today, it’s hard to know what chicken you will want to bring home next.
But hold on there…
You can not just bring home any breed of chicken you know.
What if it is from an aggressive breed of chicken that might pick on your more placid chickens?
What if the chicken is enormous and might just sideline your other chickens in your coop.
When it comes to mixing chicken breeds there has to be a science to it.
And knowing a little about the different breeds of chickens out there is going to get you an overall harmonious flock of chickens in your backyard.
Well…
Some of the time anyway.
As with everything, even ourselves.
Harmony only goes so far until one chicken wants something the other has or of course, and there is the Pecking Order!
So, Is It OK To Mix Chicken Breeds?
I think you might have guessed by what I have already said that yes you can'
But you do need to take care, just don’t throw any old chicken breed into your hen house.
So, in most cases, you can mix breeds of chickens in your flock. …
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In fact…
You can even include both the large breeds of fowl and bantam breeds – you know those small ones…
If that is what you prefer of course…
I did.
In fact, those smaller breeds of bantams don’t always end up at the bottom end of the pecking order you know…
Haven’t you heard of ‘small and feisty?
You could say, mixing different chicken breeds successfully together is what’s called a mixed flock.
But a mixed flock does take some consideration…
So get out your detective hat and start looking into some of the different breeds of chickens.
You should be able to refer to some different breeds on this site.
There are also some breeds that are just known to be very docile and calm.
While there are others that have more than just a dominant personality, so you may not want to combine the two.
If you know what’s good for you and your flock.
I really do not want to see you inside the chicken run refereeing a fight between two chickens all the time.
It can get exhausting…
And you might have other things to do.
Also, different breeds will give you different coloured eggs and different amounts of eggs.
So if you want lots of white eggs you may not want to have many Rhode Island Reds in your flock since they lay lots of brown eggs.
But within breeds you can find variation in feather colour, and what a different amount of colours there are…
For white eggs, you may consider combining such types of leggings like pearl white brown and exchequer.
See also How to Care for Your Plymouth Rock Chicken Flock
Another factor too may not have considered is the weather when mixing chicken breeds, as some do well in the cold while others fair much better in the warmer weather
Luckily enough, there are many such different breeds of chickens that do well in both, so a mixed flock is definitely a possibility for your backyard editions.
Can Two Different Breeds Of Chickens Mate?
Unlike the wild birds, that fly, these such birds do not have a problem with interbreeding.
Unlike the airborne birds that can not interbreed, due to interbreeding, this would unbalance their fine line in flying with body and wing size.
All well worked out by nature.
Now, in most cases, chickens of different breeds can successfully mate as they are not designed to fly from one point of the world to the other.
Their body build and wingspan can be compromised.
So I hope this answers your question about mixing chicken breeds, which I always did due to my artistic nature.
I needed different colours and varieties to keep me happy.
So what breed of chicken is next to you…