Introductions

[MommyRooster89]

I am going to try giving as much information as possible.
First, I told the children and myself that if they didn't lay they would be food. So I am setting up an area for that now.

We have 18 chicken that are just over a year old. Two Black Australorp (on chop block), Three Barred Rock (one accidental Roo, all on chop block), Three Amber Link, Two Ameraucana, Five Easter Egger, Three White Leghorn. They free-range on two acres most days. We JUST finished a very large run to keep them in occasionally.
We did two batches of incubated mutts (23 and 22 half of both are of course chicken nuggets) built a smaller coop and pen for future breeding. Bought two pure roo Ameraucana (the brothers get along great) and three Ameraucana pullet. My hubby bought what he said were labeled "bantam Silkie" from TSC and didn't know what bantam meant but I was excited for his random purchase.. Even though they were straight-run. Until it turned out they were Bantam Belgium D'uccle, dunno what I'm doing with them yet.

HERE'S WHAT I was PLANNING..
The big chicken have observed and a couple of them have snuck in with, the penned little chicken. It's been two months, they're 3 and 4 months old. The little ones are as big as the EE. I wanted to move all the chicken nuggets into the big pen/coop leaving only my breeding and laying hens in the small one (with the undecided bantams).
I'm tired of the nuggets picking on my keepers.
Is this possible or should i get a deep freezer ready instead and THEN move the keepers to their designated areas?

PS a lot of the first batch have mutation/retardation, only the male. Tail feathers funky, broken not broken toes, combs are crazy. So I doubt I can sell them EXCEPT as meat.

Thank you for all responses. And PLEASE try to keep conversation about MY situation.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

d'Uncles are very easy to sell. People go nuts for them. So if you don't want them, list them and you should part ways with them fast.

You can move them whenever you want, especially if there is fighting going on.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm not sure how much space you have in those various pens, coops, and runs and I'm running out of fingers and toes keeping track of all those chickens. I'm not sure how old your Ameraucana are either. So I won't try to get into much detail.

In general with the chicks and chickens being housed where they can see each other like that I'd go ahead and move them. You may run into some issues, such as getting them all to sleep where you want them to. They sometimes don't like that kind of change but if you are consistent they can learn. Sometimes I only have to put them in the new coop once, sometimes it can take a few times. It helps to lock them out of the old one. There may be some fighting but you said they free range, fighting shouldn't be a big issue between the adults and the juniors.

I don't know when you plan to butcher those cockerels. At that age they can be a pain in the rear. I personally like them to be a little older so they have more mea on them but if certain ones cause problems the freezer awaits. See if you can identify the troublemakers and remove them first.

I'm not sure what you mean by retarded/mutated. I'd be very sure none of them were kept for breeding and if I knew which chickens were the parents I would not let them breed either. Funky combs don't bother me since you said they were mutts. Messed up feet though, yeah that's a problem. At 3 to 4 months tail feathers may not have matured but you are looking at them, I'm not.

 

[MommyRooster89]

SORRY very important info.
The small pen is 10'x10' and the coop is 8'x6'.
The big pen is 19'x20' and the coop is 8'x12'.
Also: reiterate ages. Old chicken 1y3m. New chicken 4m (first batch with bantams) and 3m (second batch with Ameraucana).

Thanks!

 

[MommyRooster89]

The roo we call "the retarded one" he has a nasty personality too, picking fights constantly, and always runs away from me like a.. Well like a headless chicken.

 

[MommyRooster89]

A few pretty roos and a nice 'cow' pullet (what we call the speckled ones).

 

[MommyRooster89]

Jerk 'Hampster' the kids named him. He's done but he keeps sitting on 'Phoenix'. She's a nice EE who lays green.

It's hot today so they're sticking by the coop. Probably not a good day to introduce the young ones and move them, they're already stressed from the heat.