Can I let them mingle?

[Quaen]

They look like 5-6 weeks old, a large portion of them are cockerels.

 

[spacemonkey333]

They look like 5-6 weeks old, a large portion of them are cockerels.

Yeah. 5 of 8 are cockerels. They will be rehomed

 

[Ebony Rose]

personal opinion, but they appear to be 2 or 3 months old to me

 

[spacemonkey333]

personal opinion, but they appear to be 2 or 3 months old to me

That is my seven year old holding them so his hands may make them look bigger

 

[Quaen]

That is my seven year old holding them so his hands may make them look bigger

The first bird in the first picture does look older...but the others look quite young to me. Its good to get kids used to animals IMO.

 

[spacemonkey333]

The first bird in the first picture does look older...but the others look quite young to me. Its good to get kids used to animals IMO.

They are all the same age. I just am not sure how old they were when I got them. Anyways, they can’t be too old because 4 of them popped right through the fence in the run. The bird in the first pic was the first one through. . Guess waiting a bit longer is best. The kids love them. It will be tough to let the cockerels go. We will have some little broken hearts.

 

[Tonyroo]

Using cardboard boxes with multiple doorways works well, there always free on Craigslist and when your done, just recycle it. There's a lot of creative ways to stack it or chain the boxes like a maze.

I'm using it for my youngest chick, I have adults, teens, and my young 4 week old out in my yard everyday. She does use it.

 

[spacemonkey333]

Using cardboard boxes with multiple doorways works well, there always free on Craigslist and when your done, just recycle it. There's a lot of creative ways to stack it or chain the boxes like a maze.

I'm using it for my youngest chick, I have adults, teens, and my young 4 week old out in my yard everyday. She does use it.

That’s a great idea

 

[Quaen]

They are all the same age. I just am not sure how old they were when I got them. Anyways, they can’t be too old because 4 of them popped right through the fence in the run. The bird in the first pic was the first one through. . Guess waiting a bit longer is best. The kids love them. It will be tough to let the cockerels go. We will have some little broken hearts.

Thats a very fast developing cockerel!

Giving away cockerels is hard...but its also safer.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I let them out for about an hour today. My RIR is pretty aggressive towards them. She charges them a lot and tries to peck at them a lot. She hasn’t drawn blood. At times it is almost as if she is herding them. Other times she seems to be getting them away from her areas in the run. I put them back in their brooder for the day. This will be a process it seems.

They'll learn to run from her, if you let her do her thing. The important thing is she isn't pecking hard enough to actually injure them. An hour out is pretty good to start though, I usually keep my chicks first outing to 1-2 hours and work up from there.