Bachelor flock seeing hens

[Sadness Child]

If I have a bachelor flock and they are separated from the hens by one layer of fence will they fight each other, especially if they were not related

 

[birdlover2]

If I have a bachelor flock and they are separated from the hens by one layer of fence will they fight each other, especially if they were not related

I don't know. Have they grown up together even though they aren't related? Do they get along fine now? Is there a dominant and who appears to be it and what is there personality? Have they fought in the past? And what if your plan? Do you plan to eventually breed the roos and hens or have them together as one flock, or are you like planning to sell them or something?

 

[Sadness Child]

they have not grown up together, I was going to get them because I was going to have a bachelor flock for about a year until I am able to expand my flock. One flock will be about 20 standards and 2 of the current roos, but I only have 5 hens and 2 roos, so I need to separate them, in the future when I expand the standard area I will have about 16 bantams with 1 or two roos depending on how many bantam hens are in the area, the one I want to set aside is a Buckeye and the one that I want to be the main roo is a Blue Jersey Giant, they are both around 9 weeks old, and I have a friend who has chicks about the same age that said I could have 1 or 2 of his extra roos. So far they both seem to do well together and they have not made any moves, the Buckeye behaves like the description of a Buckeye and the Jersey Giant is a little timid, but that might be because our dog killed 4 of our hens about a week ago.

 

[birdlover2]

they have not grown up together, I was going to get them because I was going to have a bachelor flock for about a year until I am able to expand my flock. One flock will be about 20 standards and 2 of the current roos, but I only have 5 hens and 2 roos, so I need to separate them, in the future when I expand the standard area I will have about 16 bantams with 1 or two roos depending on how many bantam hens are in the area, the one I want to set aside is a Buckeye and the one that I want to be the main roo is a Blue Jersey Giant, they are both around 9 weeks old, and I have a friend who has chicks about the same age that said I could have 1 or 2 of his extra roos. So far they both seem to do well together and they have not made any moves, the Buckeye behaves like the description of a Buckeye and the Jersey Giant is a little timid, but that might be because our dog killed 4 of our hens about a week ago.

Well, I don't know. They may go crazier just seeing the hens than if you actually put the two flocks together. You should definately not put some roos in with the hens and leave the others to watch though, that would probably cause jealousy to fester. You may want to seperate them to get the two used to eachother, but if the roos are going to eventually be members of the five hen flock anyways I don't see any harm in keeping them together. Over-mating may eventually be a problem, but maybe not at first, and if one is dominant he may not allow the other to mate, so even though there would be 2 roos only one would be mating the hens, so one roo for 5 hens which is a decent ratio. But if you really want to keep them seperate till it's all sorted out, you'll just have to try it out and see how it effects them. I don't know about them fighting eachother, it may happen, but I'm more worried about them being stressed out seeing hens without being able to get to them, and trying to get through the fence constantly, (causing your structure to tumble down or chickens to escape). Every chicken is an individual, though, so maybe they'll be just fine.

 

[Ruthster55]

"... our dog killed 4 of our hens about a week ago."

How did your dog get into the run to kill the 4 hens? Unless you voluntarily or by mistake actually let the dog into the run, there is probably a place where the dog dug or broke through your fencing.

I would be more worried about the security of your overall run right now than about the rooster situation.

If the two roosters are acting aggressively toward the hens, you could build them a temporary pen while you improve the run overall.

Remember that dogs will dig so you will need to bury your fence, which hopefully is made of hardware cloth or better. Small dogs can also dig under rustically-constructed sheds.

My avvy shows our rooster inspecting a concrete footer that was added to the run to prevent small dogs from digging under the shed. We then placed the hardware cloth into wet concrete.

Our worst predator is dogs, although there are also opossums that will eat eggs. Aerial predators like hawks are uncommon here. We built accordingly.

 

[Sadness Child]

I have already fixed the security issue

I could see if I can put them in a barn we have, even though it is just a dirt floor and is inside and will be smaller than if they were outside next to the hens, I have also been looking for started pullets about the same age and integrate them