Adding and separating flock?

[Kalebsmomma]

I have 15 Golden Comet chicks that will be 16 weeks on Monday. 10 hens and 5 roosters. This weekend we plan to combine them with our other 16 adult Golden Comet hens. We plan to keep 2 of the roosters. Should we put all 5 roosters in for now or can we separate 3 from the group now? Plan for the 3 roosters is to eventually eat.

(Back story: when ordering the roosters we either had to order 5 or none.)

 

[DobieLover]

Your pullets and cockerels should all be placed in a fenced in section of the run and, ideally, have their own partitioned section of the coop. They need to stay in this "look don't touch" setup for a minimum of a week so they and the original flock can see each other and get used to each other before you permit them to interact.
You need LOTS of space and hiding places for integration. Far more than the quoted minimums cited here. If you free range, all the better.
If you know which two cockerels you intend to keep you can just integrate them and pen up the other three to grow out. Having all 5 in with the pullets will be rough on them. But if you know don't know which ones you want, you'll just have to pen them in with the pullets and integrate all 5.
It might be better to do it that way to determine which of the boys are the best candidates for flock roosters based on their behaviors once around the hens who will tune them up as needed to teach them manners. It would have been best to start the integration at 5 or 6 weeks instead but that boat left the harbor a long time ago.
As soon as you know which are destined for the dinner table, get them out of the flock and into a large bachelor pad/grow out pen of their own until their time comes. This will keep them from stressing the pullets and hens with over-mating.

 

[igorsMistress]

Either way could work, but they’re going to drive the hens crazy lol. You don’t say whether the chicks and bigs have been housed near each other for the look don’t touch period. I’ve used this method and while they’ve seen each other for a while, there was still plenty of drama when the introductions occurred so be ready for that.

The plus of putting all the roosters in with the hens is that you’ll have an opportunity to see how they behave. This would help you select the roosters to keep based on their good behavior toward the ladies rather than appearance. If you’ve already made the selections then keep the three roos separate, it’ll be easier later to collect them and do the deed.

 

[Kalebsmomma]

Actually we have two coops and two runs. Their runs share a shared fence. They've seen each other since the young ones were old enough to be outside.

 

[Ridgerunner]

16 weeks is not a bad age to eat the cockerels. That would be my plan just to keep it simple if you know which you want to keep. If you don't know which ones you want to keep then integrate them all.

Since they have been side by side for so long I'd open a gate between the two runs and let them mingle. If you are at home this weekend so you can kind of observe might be a good time. Part of what I'd expect to see is that the pullets will probably very quickly learn to not invade the adults' private space. If they do they could get pecked or worse. And at night I'd expect the pullets to sleep in their old coop, not join the adults in theirs. There can be exceptions to any of this, you never know for sure what will actually happen with living animals. Sometimes I see exceptions but this is what I'd typically see. Base your actions on what you see, not what some stranger like me over the internet tells you that you will see.

I don't know what will happen between those boys and the adult hens. There are many possibilities. One possibility is that the boys stay with the pullets and the hens aren't bothered at all, at least for now. The hens may beat the crap out of the boys because that's what some mature hens do. The boys may try to mate with the hens. Some hens might let them, some might run away from the boys, some may fight them. You never know. One thing not all that uncommon with a bunch of mature hens and one or more immature cockerels is that some hens let the cockerels mate them but the dominant hen knocks the cockerel off so he knows she is in charge. It can get violent and messy. It doesn't always but it can.

If you read some threads on here you'd expect those five boys to currently be tearing up those ten pullets since they are housed together. The feathers would be ripped off their backs and the back of the head, the pullets would be stressed out from being constantly mated or gang raped, maybe the pullets would not be eating because they are so intimidated by the boys that they are staying in the coop, maybe on the roost in the coop, to keep away. This kind of stuff can happen. It does happen, but maybe you aren't seeing it yet. I usually don't see it either, at least not very bad to where I see it as a problem. Usually does not mean always, sometimes you can have serious problems.

Again, I suggest you make your decisions based on what you see. Sometimes this can go really easily. Sometimes it can go really bad. I firmly believe the more room you have the better your odds are of it going easily. The less you force them to be together the better your chances, try to let them go at their pace. And have a place or way that you can separate one or more of the boys from the rest of the boys, pullets, and hens at a moment's notice. If the need comes up it often comes up pretty quickly.

Good luck and let us know how it goes, whatever you decide to do.

 

[Kalebsmomma]

Well everyone is alive! We had more trouble with our mature hens. They won't let them in the big coop. The roosters actually haven't really bothered the mature hens but only when our big girls harass the pullets. They seem to stay on opposite sides of the run.
I do have a mature hen I was thinking of separating from the flock for a bit because Sun she even tried to attack us when we went into the coop and nesting boxes. She's the 'original' rooster.