5 month old chickens, cockerel is trying to mate, pullets aren't ready

[galanie]

Hehe your boy is lucky, by the way. All mine gets for his efforts is either his butt kicked by an older hen or screaming and running by the younger ones.

 

[Chido]

I'm gonna go to the feed store today and ask them what breed of chickens they usually sell. I know hey often have older chicks and every now and then adult birds (as well a ducks and other waterfowl). I wanna get 1 or two more hens, depending on how big they are and if they can fit in the coop to sleep (my brother in law wants a playmouth barred rock, I wouldn't mind getting one of those

) . My coop is one of those premade ones with a run included that is about 3 x 5 feet. I'm boarding up the sides to make the run so the whole thing becomes a shelter. I'm also figuring out how to add 2, possible 3, roosts inside so they have more space to sleep. I don't worry too much about them being crowded since they only go to the coop to sleep, and I let them all out at 5:30am or so.

Also I'm not keeping them always separate

, I've noticed the morning is when my roo is at his worst, really chasing them around and making a lot of noise. What I did yesterday that seemed to work and gave the pullets a break was to only leave the roo outside the fence during the morning. I let them all get together after noon or so, and while he still mounted them, it was much less frequent, less chasing, and less stress for the pullets.

Now wish me luck that I can find 1-2 hens of a good size in the feed store, as I honestly don't want to deal with 1 day old chicks again (adorable but oh god the peeping and the poop in my carpet when I'd let them out of their box), and I can't afford to buy two older pullets from mypetchicken.com

.