Mixing Leghorns and Rhode Island Reds???

[Bloommagical]

I have 2 Rhode Island Reds, another that looks like a Rhode Island Red (completely forget the breed), and 1 barred rock.

My sister told me she was getting 3 baby chicks (9 weeks), and I assumed she was getting more of the same. She got White Leghorns.

My question is would Leghorns and Rhode Island Reds do well in the same coop?

I'm also worried because the Leghorns are terrified of me. I'm afraid that if I let them out to forage, they'd never go back to the coop, and I wouldn't be able to catch them.

 

[aart]

Mixing breeds is usually not a problem......adding new chickens to and existing flock can be a big problem.

Read up on integration:

Here's some notes I've taken on integration that I found to be very helpful.......
......take what applies or might help and ignore the rest.
See if any of them, or the links provided at the bottom, might offer some tips that will assist you in your situation:

Integration of new chickens into flock.

Consider medical quarantine:
BYC Medical Quarantine Article
Poultry Biosecurity
BYC 'medical quarantine' search

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact. Integrating new birds of equal size works best.

For smaller chicks I used a large wire dog crate right in the coop for the smallers. I removed the crate door and put up a piece of wire fencing over the opening and bent up one corner just enough for the smallers to fit thru but the biggers could not. Feed and water inside the crate for the smallers. Make sure the smallers know how to get in and out of the crate opening before exposing them to the olders. this worked out great for me, by the time the crate was too small for the them to roost in there(about 3 weeks), they had pretty much integrated themselves to the olders.

If you have too many smallers to fit in a crate you can partition off part of the coop with a wire wall and make the same openings for smallers escape.


The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide out of line of sight and/or up and away from any bully birds.

Read up on integration..... BYC advanced search>titles only>integration
This is good place to start reading:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock

 

[IdahoChickenGuy]

Some friends of mine have Rhode Island Reds and White Leghorns together and they get along just fine. In my experience, chickens of different breeds will live happily with each other but they do tend to beat up chickens of a different age. I wouldn't worry one bit about the fact some are Rhode Island Red and the new ones will be Leghorn. I would be more cautious of the older chickens beating up the new ones when they are introduced.

 

[Bloommagical]

Right now I have them in the coop in a wire dog crate. I put a board on top of the crate so my hens wouldn't poop on them.

I put the Leghorns in the run, and they seemed to be taking up the entire space by flying everywhere.
Is 64sq ft enough for 7 birds?

 

[IdahoChickenGuy]

Right now I have them in the coop in a wire dog crate. I put a board on top of the crate so my hens wouldn't poop on them.

I put the Leghorns in the run, and they seemed to be taking up the entire space by flying everywhere.
Is 64sq ft enough for 7 birds?

Yep. It if your birds are full grown and have access to a run/outdoors then they only need about 4sq ft of space per bird.

 

[RSChicken73]

Rhoad Island Reds are quite aggressive. I’d be careful to mix Rhoad Island with any other breed when the Rhoad Island are the more senior of the flock.