Experts needed! Will they ever live ALL together??

[Bec]

Hey all!!!

I am in need of some advice. I have 3 pens, my goal is to have 2. The big house and pen has my 7 1 year old BO hens. The smaller house and pen has a total of 11, 3-4 month old all different breeds. There are 8 Delaware Blue Hens, 1 WCB Polish, 1 RIR and 1 Partridge cochin roo. The 3rd pen is a temporary one for my 2, 2 1/2 month old EE girls.
The problem I have, The Orps pick on the mixed flock (the older babies) but not bad, only when it comes to eating and stuff, but I feed the seperate now...they can all free range together. The Mixed flock pick on the EE girls.

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My main goal is to have 1 pen of JUST the Delaware Blue hens. I have 7 pullets and 1 roo. The other pen will have 7 BO's, 2 EE's, 1 RIR, 1 polish and the cochin will be the roo for that flock. The 2 pens will be kept completly seperate being that I want only purebred Del. Blues. Day on , day off free ranging of both flocks. 1 day Blue hens, 1 day other flock.

How to I accomplish this? With all the pecking and picking going on, I am wonderng if my plan will EVER happen...




EDIT* I wanted to add that the EE have never free ranged with everyone else. They have been in their pen the whole time.

 

[Bec]

Maybe I posted in the wrong section??? If so , could I please have it moved to the correct section???

 

[Heather J]

Are they actually hurting the other birds, or just pecking at them a bit? It's normal for them to assert their authority now and then. The six mixed hens someone gave me in January still occasionally pick on the red star sex linked someone else gave me in June, but they've never hurt her. All the adult birds chase and peck at my 6-week-old PBRs, but have never hurt them. When my babies are done growing they'll be bigger than the other hens and the tables may be turned, but unless they are hurting each other, just try to go with the flow and see what happens.

Then again, maybe someone else will have different advice.

 

[Bec]

The big girls have never hurt the little ones, but like you said, chasing and picking. Will it ever stop?

 

[Barnyard Dawg]

Is there plenty of space for them all to free-range? we have chickens over 1 year old living with chickens 3+ months old then a separate pen which houses our 1+ month and 1 month chicks. They all are let outside to free-range together the little chicks were free-ranging at 2+ weeks old. The only problem is the older chickens eat first then the next oldest and finally the youngest, when they get full they are off to free-range on grass then the next ones take over, the little ones make sure every thing is eaten and there is no waste, we also leave the chicks food in their pen for them only and they get locked in at night the others have access to ranging 24/7. It also give the chickens a chance to socialize with each other and establishes a pecking order which is always changing it seems.

 

[Bec]

They have my whole backyard to free range in...approx. 1/4 to 1/2 and acre, so the space available to them isn't a problem, it's just when they all happen to be in the same place at the same time. About an hour ago I put the EE's out in the yard and they are venturing about. I will have to see how it goes tonihgt at feeding time and night night time.