four barred rocks hens that are 18 months old. four chicks now two months old have formed their separate flock.
This all sounds normal, pretty much what I'd expect to see.
I only have one coop and I noticed the older hens have taken to roosting outside on the run perches at night while the one pullet and three cockerels are sleeping inside the coop.
This does not sound normal. I'd expect the hens to be inside and the chicks outside or maybe sleeping on the cop floor.. Those chicks are still babies regardless of sex and the hens outrank them in the pecking order. How big in feet is that coop? Run too while I'm asking. Could you post a photo so we can see what it looks like inside the coop and maybe one overall so we can see how they are tied together. We all have different conditions, maybe there is something about your set-up that might explain this.
Should I isolate the cockerels I a separate coop and allow the one pullet to integrate with the older hens?
The only behavior you mention is those hens moving outside to sleep. Are you seeing any other behaviors that look like trouble? At 8 weeks those hens shouldn't even notice that those are boys. I've had a very few boys hit puberty at 12 weeks, most are in the 15 to 17 week range before those behaviors show up,
As Aart said it can be a little harder to integrate a single chicken, especially a younger one. The hens tend to keep the juveniles away until they mature enough to join is as a full flock member, typically around when she starts to lay. With cockerels there are no guidelines, but it should be later in puberty. I had one at 15 weeks, some go close to a year.
I'd make the decision to isolate the boys based on their behaviors. Go by what you see happening instead of a calendar. There is something going on I don't understand. But definitely have a place ready to put them on short notice.
I won’t need three roosters once they all mature, so do I neee to rehire them now?
I think that is a good decision, to not try to keep them all. How do you plan to get rid of them? Your options are to eat, sell, give away, kill and dispose of the bodies, or house them in isolation in a bachelor pad. You can eat them at 2 months but there won't be much meat there. For that reason you might want to keep them around so they grow before butcher. To avoid leaving that pullet alone any more than necessary I'd wait to remove the last boy until there is a need. But now would be a good time to remove two of them.
Kept the boys until 2 of them started mounting at about 12-14 weeks.
Aart, I assume they were mounting the one pullet, not the mature hens?
