What do you predict will happen?

[BarnyardChaos]

@Brooks_ @Maddcatter photos fixed!

 

[ChicFil- A]

Hey y'all! (I just love that term; I spent some years in Texas and Oklahoma, so I'm allowed to use it ) In a couple of weeks, I'll need to combine a couple of groups of youngsters into Camp Cockerel, or Freezer Camp, whatever you wish to call it. One group of 26 will be about 11 weeks old, and the second group of 29 will be about 7 weeks old. I can reduce those numbers some by moving the pullets to the integration area in the Big Coop, but I haven't got that section built to my liking, yet. The older chicks have already been in Freezer Camp for a week, and I'll need to add the younger group to them soon.

Anyway, what if I just put the younger group in with them, without a period of integration? Will it be a bloodbath, or just a brief period of fussing?

bloodbath!

 

[BarnyardChaos]

bloodbath!

LOL hopefully not anymore. See my latest update post above.

 

[aart]

I built a 'Fort Knox' cabinet/hutch for their roosting space at night during the integration period.

What are the dimensions on this?
Roosts look too close together and to front and back.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

LOL hopefully not anymore. See my latest update post above.

Before and after:

 

[BarnyardChaos]

What are the dimensions on this?
Roosts look too close together and to front and back.

Oh, I assure you the roosts are FAR TOO CLOSE together for grown chickens, and the whole cabinet is too small for more than 2 or 3. But I think it'll "do" for chicks up to about 8 weeks of age, and only for a few days, until I can integrate them and get them to use the bigger shed.

The cabinet is 7-feet wide X 24-inches deep (14 sq ft), and 21-inches tall, raised about 14-inches off the ground. The center of those roosts are 8-inches away from front and back walls, 8-inches apart, and 5-inches off the floor. Leaves 16-inches of head space.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

@aart Here's the interior of the bigger shed. I HAVE since added another 8-foot roosting bar along the right (front) wall, so that low bar is about equally spaced between them. There's a short, lower crossbar near the back, to access the middle bar. Gives about 24-linear-feet of roosting space (not counting the low crossbar). The shed is 4' x 12'. It should house about 30 cockerels at the most, at any given time:

And before anyone asks about ventilation, I've got it . The full-size door and that window are hardware cloth covered. I don't use this shed in winter for chickens. And on the hottest summer days, I add a box fan (chickens can't access it) to pull cooler air in low and force hot air out up high.

IF I ever wanted to put it into service in winter, I can seal up the lower half of the window, open up some space between the rafters, and the door is adjustable so I can leave whatever size gap I want across the top.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Oh, and I have two roosting bars in the cabinet only because I had to put a group of 29 cockerels and pullets in there for a night or two. I've got the 11-week-old pullets integrating now within a bigger coop elsewhere - to be evicted by tomorrow morning to live with the big girls and boys. I'll pull the 7-week-old pullets out of this cabinet and put them in that bigger coop integration space. That will leave about 17-18 cockerels in that cabinet and integration space for several days longer - only to about 8-9 weeks of age, max.

It's all part of my rotation plan, to fill the freezers and egg cartons, and to share products and live birds with friends, family, and our community. I need some for our freezer, and to replace old layers. I've got incubators with total capacity of 39, and don't like to butcher more than 20 birds (with help) at any one time. I think I have capacity to raise 150-180 chicks this year without brooding in the heat of summer, nor butchering in the snow.

So..... I hatch and rotate through each of the spaces as they grow:
Heated indoor Brooder: Hatchlings to 2-wks old
Nursery Coop: 2-5 wks old with supplemental heat.
Schoolhouse Coop: 5-7/8 wks old.
Camp Cockerel and integration space - cockerels 7/8-wks old to butcher at 16-wks old.
Big Coop and integration space - pullets 7/8-wks old to general population.

I must keep them moving through.... because there's another batch of eggs in the incubator due to hatch next week!

My urgency when I posted this thread was only because of my failure to plan ahead. I thought I had a good plan and all the coops/runs I needed, until I realized I needed to integrate groups of cockerels back-to-back into the same coop and run, and had no means of doing it without creating a bloodbath.

Last year and the year before, I took chicks from the Schoolhouse Coop directly to integration in the Big Coop. Then when the cockerels were of age, I simply picked them out of general population. It didn't work so well for the established flock, though. There was constant upheaval to their pecking order, competition for roosting space and at feeders, and far too many boys running around creating general havoc. My flock was stressed.

So this year, I decided to separate the cockerels into their own space, and integrate only the pullets into general population. We will see how it goes.