It's been over a week since I removed the see thru fencing to merge my young pullets (now a little over 10 wks)...

[bayareapilot]

Wasn't sure whether to place this under chicken behavior or flock management. I opted for the latter, hopefully this is the right forum to post this.

SO, a week from last Sunday I took down the plastic netting that separated the (then) 9 week old pullets from my cockerell and his two pullets. Basically, the babies have their own house in the large open run area and were separated from the 'main flock' for about three weeks (I put them out into their new home at 6 weeks from the brooder).

Having never done this before, I *think* (???) this is going okay so far.

It wasn't as horrific as I thought it might be (I was imagining some pretty awful possibilities) - I think having them be able to see but not touch one another for the three weeks helped a lot.

SO, here's what I'm seeing so far. For the most part (and I know it has only been a little over a week) the younger pullets seem to be functioning as a 'sub-flock'. For the most part the cockerel seems fine with them although sometimes he kind of charges at them but doesn't seem to have any intent of getting hold of them,,, it appears to simply either be a means to get them to move to some other part of the open run area. He doesn't try to hurt them that I can see. Sometimes I think he does it just to see if they 'respect' his authority. Again though, he doesn't hurt them and usually leaves them alone.

There was one interesting situation where he did his 'charge-bluff' and one of my young pullets turned around and kind of flapped her wings towards him and he actually seemed to immediately run away - of course it could have been that there was something going on in his coop with one of the hens and he was just running back to check on them.

For the most part though, when the younger pullets are poking around in the open run area he seems just fine with them (although they don't get close to him at this point). The older pullets don't seem to know what to think of the younger ones but I've seen no hint of conflicht between the older pullets and the younger ones; although it is fair to point out that the younber pullets don't seem to approach either the older pullets or cockerel very closely.

So, for those of you that have done this combining thing before; is this a normal porgression of things at this stage? The younger pullets stay in their house at night and the older pullets and cockerel live in their own house.

What I was wondering is do they eventually get chummier as time goes along? I fully realize that they have only been together/combined for slightly over a week so I wasn't expecting any major hanging out together yet; I was just more wondering how things normally progress as we move further into the weeks ahead and what is normal and what is not normal?

I have loved the certainty of the sex-links (Golden Comets) as I have all females as I intended (four of them).

Thanks in advance for any insights you can share!

 

[Folly's place]

This all sounds just fine! Your cockerel will be interested in this new group, and eventually they will become one flock, but later. Often hatchmates stick together as family for a long time, also normal.
Think about fall or winter, when the pullets are all laying eggs, as time for flock dynamics to be in a new place.
Mary

 

[mymilliefleur]

Sounds like everything is going smoothly. A little sparring is normal at first, they are working out a pecking order.

 

[Mrs. K]

When the pullets begin laying, the sub flock will mostly disappear.

 

[Sonya9]

The rooster will get "chummier" with them as soon as they are old enough to breed (and hopefully not before).

 

[chrissynemetz]

It sounds like it's going very smoothly! Eventually they'll become more like one big group.

 

[aart]

I think having them be able to see but not touch one another for the three weeks helped a lot.

Absolutely!

Does sound good.
How old are the older birds?

 

[gclarrot]

It took a month for my Buff orphingtons to get “chummy” with my EEs. They all pile up together on the roost bars except two of them. They are best friends. They do their own thing together. But now 2 moths later they are just fine.

I do have one dominant hen that likes to give them a gentle peck if she’s enjoying a treat/food and she wants them to go away. She’s definitely what I consider , head hen.

I did something very similar to you. I kept them in an xlarge dog crate, then after 3 weeks they were just fine with some minor pecking that wasn’t as severe as I assumed it was going to be. I started though with “field trips” in the run with the dog crate then full time housing in it until they were big enough and no one was pecking anymore through the dog crate.

 

[aart]

The whole purpose of my post was to find out what they typically do when they get combined when they have quarters of different sizes do they go gravitate toward the larger quarter and go there or do they just continue living in the areas they're respectively comfortable in. That's all my question was about

They gravitate toward the coop they are familiar with....size doesn't matter.
If you want all the birds in the larger coop, you have to block off the other coop.

 

[aart]

So, the four Comets (pullets) still are functioning a bit like a sub-flock (from what I understand that means?).

Yep. The younger birds may meld more into the older flock's pecking order once they start laying.

So, I guess (???) things are going 'normally'?

Yep, sounds normal.

Your observations and descriptions are excellent.