"coming of age"...roos vs girls?

[kaybats]

My little flock are all the same age....nearly 17 weeks. 2 roos, one is slightly smaller than the other, but neither has really established an alpha position that I can tell. (I watch carefully every day..I don't want any fighting). Max, the littler one, has started trying to mount the girls, not with much luck I must say, but trying nonetheless. Do the boys mature faster? Do I need to separate them until the girls are ready? How will I know? Should I just leave them alone and keep a watchful eye? I kinda want to think that keeping them apart would be not such a good thing. I want everyone to be happy. They have been together since 3 days old. But I also don't want the girls to be afraid or feel threatened...oh the dilemma! Please help...thanks so much.

 

[Arielle]

I can only tell my experience with 26 dual purpose birds: 1 adult hen, 22 pullets and 3 roosters. THe adult hen is the queen, she arrived here at her new home as our only chicken and became the established top dog. Then I bought 25 chicks, and raised everyone together, all the pullets and the roosters. I don't have fighting; a little pecking goes a long way. My top rooster started establishing dominance at several weeks old by pecking the others into submission. Everyone knows he is top dog and the other roosters bow and run out of reach. My adult queen emits this threatening grunt and the other hens scatter. THere is a little pecking among the hens.

By living together , with plenty of space (lots of free range time) , they work out the pecking order. A few pecks do serve as reminders occassionally.

imho, this has been my experience with a dual purpose flock.

 

[Carter57]

I have 2 rooster the same age. I got 8 chicks in late March. 4 sexed hens 2 longhorn hens and 2 did not know. The to did not know turned out to be Roosters which was ok. I wanted at least one. I smaller one has shown that he is the main one. He crows first in the morning, does not let the other rooster out of the coop untill he has checked every thing.
He also took control when the larger rooster (Rusty) tried to pick me, He put him in place fast.