Managing seperate flocks in coops/runs

[KDailey]

When I place my order tomorrow for 15 chicks from Ideal I will total 20 chicks including my current 5. We've made up plans for the coop and run. I decided I would like to make two seperate coops and runs just so I would have the option of seperating if needed. They will be connected so if I wanted one big coop and run all I would have to do is open the people door in the fence connecting the two runs/coops.

I'm ordering all bantums because I think I will prefer the smaller birds. I currently have:
3 Cuckoo Marans (standard)
2 Unknown (bantum)

On order tomorrow will be:
10 assorted feather legged bantums (should include assortment of silkie, cochin, d'uccle, brahma, etc)
3 assorted silkie bantums
2 Fawn Red Old English Game Bantums (hoping to get 1 rooster)

I'm trying to decide how they should be split up into the two coops. I'm having a hard time just because I don't know some of the basics. Some of my questions/concerns are:
[*]Can more than one rooster be together safely? I know this can depend on each rooster's personality but I'd like to know as a general rule is this ok? I've read that the Old English Game roosters can be very territorial so I'm assuming whichever pen he's in, I should seperate the other roo's

[*]Does breeding silkie to silkie produce the naked neck showgirls? I read that this is so. I prefer not to have any naked necks. Do silkies cross well with the other breeds I have or should I seperate the silkies? The silkies are my favorites but I'm getting some others for variety and egg production.

[*]Is it ok to pen all roosters together seperate from hens? I'm thinking that all the chicks I have except for one may be roosters. They all have combs but of course they're only a few days old. But the one unknown bantum chick's comb seems much smaller. All the others also seem to have tiny little bumps on their legs where I'm assuming their spurs will come in. If so, I don't need that many roosters obviously and I'm bound to get a few more with my order. So is it ok to pen up all the ones I don't want seperate from the hens until I can sell/give them away or will there be problems (aside from just personalities clashing)

[*]If these were your birds how would you split them? They don't have to be completely equal 10 in one coop and 10 in the other because I'm not sure exactly how many of each breed there will be due to the assortment of feather legged bantums.

So the breeds are as follows:
3 Cuckoo Marans
2 Unknown Bantums
3+ Silkies
2 Old English Bantums
? Cochin Bantums
? D'uccle Bantums
? Brahma Bantums

Pretend you can pick and choose which ones are roosters since I'm not sure yet.

 

[Whiskey Bay]

Quote:
The rooster questions are sort of all dependent on your roosters.I have roosters penned up together for sale,and I have roosters running loose and breeding together,with no problems.However I do have roosters raised together,that had to be seperated....
My Old English are no different.I have two brothers penned together. When they are free roaming,they are not the problem.The silkie and cochin roosters are. The Silkie roos by far are more territorial on my yard.

Breeding silkie x silkie creates...silkies... You have to have the NN gene in there to produce the NN gene.Hatcheries dont carry anything NN except turkens.Showgirls (NN silkies) are personally bred not hatchery produced.

 

[KDailey]

Quote:
Awesome! Thanks for the info. So I should be fine with just breeding the silkies together for purebreds and letting the others do their own thing as far as that goes. I may decide to add another run/coop as the "for sale" pen. I'll do that as needed though I think.

Any other suggestions?

 

[greenSearcher]

I am about to build my 4th small coop. Each coop has its own yard, about 900 sq ft. The coop can easily hold around a dozen full sized chickens. Each coop also has an attached covered run so they have about 60 sq ft of sheltered area for hiding from predators or seeking shade. Don't have much besides mesquite on our land. Anyway, each coop has a head rooster, with hens and either juveniles or silkies. Red coop has Punkit, a 2 yo Speckled Sussex who also watches over all the chicken yards and sounds the alert if there is a problem in one of them. He has 11 girls, 4 are from his hatch, and the other 7 are from this year, 6 are POL. He takes good care of the girls. Blue coop has my Naked Necks, Oakley and his 5 Annies plus what I hope is a Welsumer pair. Earlobes look red so I feel pretty good in ruling out the Brown Leghorn. I sold the Delawares that lived with him, they ate way too much for the egg production and were just too full of mischief. I have NN, NN/Del and a couple Del babies in the garage. Will pick the best roo to replace Oakley (he walks w/ really stiff legs) and harvest the rest. I love my Naked Necks, really sweet birds that are good layers and they tolerate the heat better than the others. The Speckled Sussex are the ones that I lose when it is really hot. Only had one Marans survive their first summer, and Ma is still fine. In the yellow coop I have EE roo, Blue Andalusian and Speckled Sussex hens plus my two silkie roos. Red Fred keeps the KikoMen in control, scolds and herds them just like the hens, but he allows them supervised matings, makes sure his girls are OK. Will give Red Fred the remaining girls from my hatch, will primarily be EEs or EE crosses. The last coop will be bachelor housing pending sale or harvest for the excess roos.

I chose to have small coops, about 25 sq ft, they are easier to build and to maintain. I can move them if I insert axles and wheels, but I haven't done that since the first one. I will also stop with the 4th coop. Frankly I am tired of brooding chicks. I also am not sure I will be able to harvest the roosters. I have arthritis in my hands and they are just weak. Haven't found anyone to help yet. I have been fairly successful with chicken sales though, so that may be what I focus on.

With your focus on Bantam chickens, you may find it difficult to sell the eggs, but on the other hand you will use more to cook. I feed my excess eggs back to the girls scrambled w/ chili flakes. Special treat!

 

[greenSearcher]

On the Show girl question, I believe Show girls are a three way cross of Silkies, Polish and Naked Necks. The polish/silkie cross gives the nice thick crest and then they are crossed w/ the NN. They are cute chickens, but I don't need any more fuzzy predator bait.

 

[Whiskey Bay]

If you use good quality silkies,they produce all the crest you need.I've heard of no one using polish in there. The point of using the silkies over the showgirls is to add fluff,increase foot feathering,toes,and darkening skin.

 

[KDailey]

Now that I've actually ordered from Ideal, the number of chickens has changed and the breeds have changed only slightly.

The order is as follows:
4 Standard Brahma pullets
1 Standard Brahma male
5 Bantum Silkies
5 Bantum d'Uccles
5 Bantum Cochins

So I've bumped the number up to 25 instead of 20 and have made it so it's more set in stone as to the breeds. I think I'll put the brahmas in one side of the coop and the silkies, d'Uccles and cochins in the ther. Or maybe put the d'Uccles with the brahmas. -sigh- so many different options.....