11- and 13-week old chickens--need to manage the flock. Please help with identifying and selecting?

[song of joy]

I would choose a dominique rooster as you have dominique hens. Also, dominique chicks can often be sexed at hatch based on a combination of head spot size and configuration and color of legs, although the accuracy in doing this varies by the particular strain of dominique. They are a nice size and the hens are quite friendly. If you do breed them, select for good temperament in the roosters.

 

[Cowgirl71]

So even though some are crowing and fights have occurred, they are still to young to cull? I thought maybe I should reduce the number of cocks for the sake of the hens but if you all think it is too soon...

The cockerels won't start pestering the pullets/hens until they're about 15-17 weeks old. And it's another week or more after that before it starts being a problem. You still have plenty of time.

I added three Barred Rock mature hens yesterday and though I have them separated by chicken wire, there have been spats. Also those three have not laid an egg since I got them. I'm hoping to let them in the hen house after dark when the others are sleeping so they can get to the nest boxes and roosting poles. I hope they aren't attacked!

The hens are mature? Don't worry they'll be fine. I'd be more concerned about the mature hens pecking your younger birds, once that chicken wire divider is gone. But it should be fine, if there's enough space for everybody.

Chickens are not nocturnal. Their eyesight in the dark is poor. They won't use the nesting boxes in the dark, and if you want them on the roost poles you're going to have to set them on there yourself. If you just set them in the coop and close the door, they're not going to move, they'll just sit there on the floor, scared, until morning.

It's pretty common for hens not to lay for several days, even a couple weeks, due to stress, until they get accustomed to their new surroundings.

 

[Jeanne Deaux]

Wow. Okay, thanks for all the advice! I would try to catch the new girls in the pen (not easy in the light let alone in the dark!) and carry into the house tonight but they squawk so much I'm afraid they'll wake all the others.

 

[donrae]

They will wake the other birds, everyone will fuss for a little bit them go back to sleep. I move all my birds around at night, cause I'm not chasing down a chicken. Wear a headlamp and keep everything else dark. You can pick the bird right up and tuck it under your arm. Some will fuss like you're killing them (for all they know, you might be!) and some will hardly wake up.

I'd say take your mature hens and put with the pullets. then take the cockerels and put them where the new mature hens were, in a separate enclosure. go ahead and separate now and you won't have issues with pullets getting ganged up on down the road.

 

[Jeanne Deaux]

I did it!! Moved the mature Barred Rock hens in the dark into the hen house (had help with flashlight) and then the three Dominique roosters outside to separate area. Tomorrow I will put in a roosting pole for this pen. I left both red roosters because everyone was waking up and jumping down from their roosts so needed to quit. But I'll see how those two do and can always separate on another night! If I have about six weeks before I need to cull, I can give each cockerel a week audition and then decide who stays. Brilliant advice. Thanks so much everyone. This forum is terrif.