hi to all hope every one had a great thanksgiving. I have a question, I have a 8x8 run with two seprate coops attatched to the run. i lock them up in the coop at night and in the morning i let out one pair of chickens . When i come home from work i lock them up in thier coop and let out the other pair till it gets dark and then i lock them up. The first pair are game birds a hatch chicken and my albany rooster both 5 months old. My second pair is a 2 year white old english bantam, and a golden penciled hamburg. i would like the to be ble to release all 4 of them with out having to woory about the rooster fighting and my albany game rooster killing my other bantam rooster. thier both pretty jumpy and niether of them will back down from each other. what should i do? Is it possible to be able to have all for of them in the same run at the same time? The hens get along great its just the roosters im worried about especially becouse one is so bigger then the other. What should i do???
i keep my roos separate too. each with his own girls. I thought about giving one roo all the girls one day, then the other roo all the girls the next day. but dont know if that would change things, make roos more bothersome to the girls or what. so, if it aint broke, i aint gonna fix it. i do know there are people that do it that way.
Red, it IS NOT possible to keep them together. Had they grown up together, maybe, but not in the same small run. Once they are penned seperately, that is for ever. They cannot free range together, either. You must seperate them and a wire partition won`t do it. You have to block their view of each other, or have a space between the runs. Sorry, just the way they are........Pop
If they're already hostile and neither will back down, if you put them together, soon enough the problem will resolve itself and you will have only 1 rooster in the run You can't change their fundamental nature, no matter how much more convenient it might be for you if they were different. Good luck, have fun, Pat
so besides spliting it what can i do. should i let out both hens and rotate the roosters or should i just let out 1 one pair each day?
That can work, until you need to save eggs for production and then you wouldn't know what had fertilized what. Look in a weekly want ads for a small dog pen you can get real cheap. With a little engenuity, you can turn that into a decent private coop.
guess you have to try it and see what works best for you. I like having two flocks and keeping the boys with their girls. Seems to be more "normal" for me, I don't have to feel sorry about a left out roo...or a roo who gets too interested in the girls that just come to "visit" but dont spend the nite. lol.
