This will be a crap shoot. It may work as some have said, and it may be a disaster, with things fighting to a bloody death. Roosters are a crap shoot, some turn out nice, some turn into demons. The friendliest chicks often become the worst nightmares. Chickens are not like puppies, where if people are good to them, and they are raised together, they all get along.
I would not attempt your plan. There is a high chance that your hens will be badly beat up. The flock will be in a pretty high state of tension most of the time. At adolescents, it will be very rough.
If you do try and do this you need:
* a separate pen set up and ready to go, so that you can immediately separate birds.
* a long handled fishing net, so as to be able to capture a fighting bird and separate them
Any time you keep roosters, in my opinion, you need a sharp knife, so as to remove a bird that is not working out in the flock. A bachelor pad would also work, but needs to be a great distance from the ladies. Roosters have been known to fight themselves bloody through a fence trying to get at the other roosters.
As for adding birds, generally the coop /run are already built. MEASURE that to determine if you can add birds. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that if you free range you can have more birds. The size of the coop determines that, and during the long nights of winter, that is where they are, in the coop.
A lot depends on what you mean by a backyard chicken flock. If you have your chickens in a barn, with huge amount of space, and you truly have room for 30-40 head of hens, this will probably work, although even then, sometimes it won't. But if you have a dozen birds in the back yard, this is more than likely NOT going to work well.
You may worry what the nieces will think, but seeing animals torn apart, or with gapping holes is not sweet either.
I have had chickens for years, I have had a father/son set of roosters that did not work out too badly... until I did reduce them, was rather amazed at the difference in tension in the flock, when I replace those two with a single rooster.
This will most likely be hardest on your hens.
Mrs K
I would not attempt your plan. There is a high chance that your hens will be badly beat up. The flock will be in a pretty high state of tension most of the time. At adolescents, it will be very rough.
If you do try and do this you need:
* a separate pen set up and ready to go, so that you can immediately separate birds.
* a long handled fishing net, so as to be able to capture a fighting bird and separate them
Any time you keep roosters, in my opinion, you need a sharp knife, so as to remove a bird that is not working out in the flock. A bachelor pad would also work, but needs to be a great distance from the ladies. Roosters have been known to fight themselves bloody through a fence trying to get at the other roosters.
As for adding birds, generally the coop /run are already built. MEASURE that to determine if you can add birds. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that if you free range you can have more birds. The size of the coop determines that, and during the long nights of winter, that is where they are, in the coop.
A lot depends on what you mean by a backyard chicken flock. If you have your chickens in a barn, with huge amount of space, and you truly have room for 30-40 head of hens, this will probably work, although even then, sometimes it won't. But if you have a dozen birds in the back yard, this is more than likely NOT going to work well.
You may worry what the nieces will think, but seeing animals torn apart, or with gapping holes is not sweet either.
I have had chickens for years, I have had a father/son set of roosters that did not work out too badly... until I did reduce them, was rather amazed at the difference in tension in the flock, when I replace those two with a single rooster.
This will most likely be hardest on your hens.
Mrs K
