Isolating by age vs. gender

[Frango Asado]

I've got three 4 week Australorps (2 males) and five 2 week Lemon Cuckoo Orps (three males). I have them out in playpens during the day, and I bring them in at night. So far I have been putting the older chicks together in one pen and the younger ones in the smaller pen. I'm thinking about penning the three girls together--these are the ones I'm definitely keeping anyways, so this will give them more of an opportunity to bond.

What do you think?

 

[RonC]

I would keep them near enough they can see each other. Might let them mingle for a bit to see how they react to each other. There's not a huge difference in their ages so they might get along. You definitely have a bunch of roos on your hands.

 

[CAjerseychick]

They are only 2 weeks apart I would keep them all together....

 

[donrae]

I'd put them in all together. Keeping seperate pens is too much work for me, I'm lazy. And never had a problem with bird up to 3 weeks apart getting along.

 

[Frango Asado]

They've had together time since the younger ones were a day old. The LCOs are much smaller than the BAs, but they hold their own and even instigate mix-ups with the older ones, who are mostly pretty good natured about it. So they get along well enough and can be together. My problem is that I have two tub brooders indoors and two small pens (one is a wire dog crate and the other is a ring of chicken wire in a dead area of my veggie garden). Neither is really big enough for all eight chicks.

 

[aaggjg]

I'd put them all together .... At that age you shouldn't have any problems.