This is a long novel and I apologize, but I am going back and forth on what to do here. I'm sure my DH will have something to say about it, but I can't decide the best course of action here and would like to ask the "what would you do?" question. If you like puzzles, read on. If not, your eyes will just cross before you get to the end, LOL!
Coop #1 has the main flock of 17 hens led by my 2 yr old Delaware rooster, Isaac *in my avatar*
Coop #2 is divided into two coops, really, with pen divided down the middle. Section #1 has the BBS Orps with big Suede and his three hens. Section #2 has three 5 yr old hens, two 4 yr old Brahmas, my only older banty Cochin, my broody buff Orp, Nugget with her 5 wk old chick.
Coop #3 is slated to be the Belgian D'Anver coop. It currently has the entire group of 11.5 wk old youngsters, including all the D'Anvers, my LF Silver Phoenix pullet who will stay with them permanently, plus 9 more standard breeds which consist of my new breeding quad of show type Barred Rocks, a splash Rock, two Buff Orp girls and two EEs.
My quandry is this: what to do with the 9 standard breed youngsters who need to leave the bantam coop soon? I want the BRs to be where I can breed them and know that they are pure BRs at some point.
Option #1) I had planned to put the entire group into the main flock with Isaac, then later separate them out for breeding, but Isaac may try to kill my BR cockerel, Rex. He once chased a 9 week old barred EE cockerel all over the coop when I put him in there with his broody mom who raised him and DH had to come to his rescue. What on earth would he do to Rex? I can't endanger Rex and I'm afraid for him, even though he will be quite young-Isaac already isn't that fond of the BR hens in the main flock. What will he do if I add three more BR girls plus one with a big honking red comb and wattles? This option would have worked out with Hawkeye or Dutch, but Isaac is not like those two, not at all.
Option #2) I could remove Isaac with his two Del hens and a couple more, maybe the Brahmas and Tiny, and put them in the old ladies side of the coop next to Suede *put up a barrier between the pen sections as they hate each other* and just put the entire group of youngsters including Rex in the main flock so that Rex is the only male in there with all those hens. Of course, there will be the usual hazing of the 9 newbies by the 14 remaining older hens currently living there, but that's to be expected and they'd learn to live together just fine.
Will he be able to keep them all mated? There will be 14 older hens, plus his own aged girls. Isaac would be able to mate them all (Delaware males handle big groups of hens easily), but can Rex? I do think he's likely to mate the girls he grew up with, which is what I want most of all, of course, since that includes his three top quality BR pullets, but I also want chicks out of two of the four older BR hens in the main flock. If I choose this option, I need to figure out when to do it. We usually let young groups free range with the main flock to get to know them, but can't do it if I don't want Isaac chasing the young pullets and trying to kill Rex at the same time.
Option #3) Remove the bossy Brahmas and the banty Cochin from the old ladies coop and put Rex in there with the girls he grew up with. That 8x8 coop will hold about a dozen standards comfortably, but I have my old hens who are going on 6 yrs old and I don't want them hassled by him, and they are too old to deal with rowdy Isaac and too small for big Suede.
With Option 3, it would be Rex, 2 BRs, 2 young Buff Orps, 2 EEs, the splash Rock, older BO hen Nugget (with her youngster till he is rehomed), and the two elderly hens who are not laying. If he gets too rowdy with those two old ladies, not sure what I'd do with them. Shadow, the banty Cochin could go in with the bantams, but she'd be alone with no one she knows and those D'anver males are fiesty little ones! She's never had a tiny rooster go after her and not sure who'd win that battle, LOL. It is possible that Sunny and Reba could live with the bantams because we did add a lower, wider roost in that coop, just in case, so if Shadow went in there, Reba and Sunny might be able to go as well, though, that was not my intent for that coop at all, that it be for the old standard hens.
Once Nugget has let go of her chick she is raising, she could go in the main flock with the Brahmas. She's so mild mannered that she is always at the bottom of the pecking order and that is why she stays with the old ladies. I'd like to keep her with whatever Buff Orps I have, though, which would include Sunny and the two younger Buff Orps in Rex's group. They'll eventually become buds, from my experience and gravitate toward each other, as same breeds and/or colors in the chicken world tend to do.
So, with this situation, which option would you choose? Or, if anyone has another suggestion, I'd love to hear it. There may be something I have not thought of.
Coop #1 has the main flock of 17 hens led by my 2 yr old Delaware rooster, Isaac *in my avatar*
Coop #2 is divided into two coops, really, with pen divided down the middle. Section #1 has the BBS Orps with big Suede and his three hens. Section #2 has three 5 yr old hens, two 4 yr old Brahmas, my only older banty Cochin, my broody buff Orp, Nugget with her 5 wk old chick.
Coop #3 is slated to be the Belgian D'Anver coop. It currently has the entire group of 11.5 wk old youngsters, including all the D'Anvers, my LF Silver Phoenix pullet who will stay with them permanently, plus 9 more standard breeds which consist of my new breeding quad of show type Barred Rocks, a splash Rock, two Buff Orp girls and two EEs.
My quandry is this: what to do with the 9 standard breed youngsters who need to leave the bantam coop soon? I want the BRs to be where I can breed them and know that they are pure BRs at some point.
Option #1) I had planned to put the entire group into the main flock with Isaac, then later separate them out for breeding, but Isaac may try to kill my BR cockerel, Rex. He once chased a 9 week old barred EE cockerel all over the coop when I put him in there with his broody mom who raised him and DH had to come to his rescue. What on earth would he do to Rex? I can't endanger Rex and I'm afraid for him, even though he will be quite young-Isaac already isn't that fond of the BR hens in the main flock. What will he do if I add three more BR girls plus one with a big honking red comb and wattles? This option would have worked out with Hawkeye or Dutch, but Isaac is not like those two, not at all.
Option #2) I could remove Isaac with his two Del hens and a couple more, maybe the Brahmas and Tiny, and put them in the old ladies side of the coop next to Suede *put up a barrier between the pen sections as they hate each other* and just put the entire group of youngsters including Rex in the main flock so that Rex is the only male in there with all those hens. Of course, there will be the usual hazing of the 9 newbies by the 14 remaining older hens currently living there, but that's to be expected and they'd learn to live together just fine.
Will he be able to keep them all mated? There will be 14 older hens, plus his own aged girls. Isaac would be able to mate them all (Delaware males handle big groups of hens easily), but can Rex? I do think he's likely to mate the girls he grew up with, which is what I want most of all, of course, since that includes his three top quality BR pullets, but I also want chicks out of two of the four older BR hens in the main flock. If I choose this option, I need to figure out when to do it. We usually let young groups free range with the main flock to get to know them, but can't do it if I don't want Isaac chasing the young pullets and trying to kill Rex at the same time.
Option #3) Remove the bossy Brahmas and the banty Cochin from the old ladies coop and put Rex in there with the girls he grew up with. That 8x8 coop will hold about a dozen standards comfortably, but I have my old hens who are going on 6 yrs old and I don't want them hassled by him, and they are too old to deal with rowdy Isaac and too small for big Suede.
With Option 3, it would be Rex, 2 BRs, 2 young Buff Orps, 2 EEs, the splash Rock, older BO hen Nugget (with her youngster till he is rehomed), and the two elderly hens who are not laying. If he gets too rowdy with those two old ladies, not sure what I'd do with them. Shadow, the banty Cochin could go in with the bantams, but she'd be alone with no one she knows and those D'anver males are fiesty little ones! She's never had a tiny rooster go after her and not sure who'd win that battle, LOL. It is possible that Sunny and Reba could live with the bantams because we did add a lower, wider roost in that coop, just in case, so if Shadow went in there, Reba and Sunny might be able to go as well, though, that was not my intent for that coop at all, that it be for the old standard hens.
Once Nugget has let go of her chick she is raising, she could go in the main flock with the Brahmas. She's so mild mannered that she is always at the bottom of the pecking order and that is why she stays with the old ladies. I'd like to keep her with whatever Buff Orps I have, though, which would include Sunny and the two younger Buff Orps in Rex's group. They'll eventually become buds, from my experience and gravitate toward each other, as same breeds and/or colors in the chicken world tend to do.
So, with this situation, which option would you choose? Or, if anyone has another suggestion, I'd love to hear it. There may be something I have not thought of.
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