On Monday I moved my new chickens, 15 barred rocks (18wks), into my garden where they are sharing a fence line with my my flock of 12 australorps (22wks). After reading all the nightmare stories about mixing birds, I hunkered down and prepped for the worse
. I had my rocks in quarantine for 30 days where both roosters spent a lot of time crowing at each other. Yesterday I came home to find some of my australorps running around with the rocks. I watched for a while, and after no signs of aggression I thought this may not be as bad as I thought. So I let some more hens into the rocks' enclosure. Still nothing. THen I let my australorp roo into the mix. And to my surprise, and delight, still nothing.
The australorps free range in a 40x60 foot pen and the rocks are in my 40x40 foot garden. I am still a little skeptical about them mixing, as my australorps are bossing my rocks around but are not being violent. The birds each have a coop to sleep in, as I haven't forced the rocks into the australorps' territory yet.
So my questions is, did I just luck out with the birds I have or is this about to get mean and messy when I put my rocks into my australorps' coop? Has anyone else ever mixed these breeds before? My australorps just started laying so I thought Alpha Roo would be very aggressive to Chuckles, the younger rock roo, but other than making noise at each other, they don't really pay much attention to one another.
This is my first mixing and I'm a little scared as I'm out of the house over 8 hours a day teaching. Any advice would be welcome. Thanks in advanced.
The australorps free range in a 40x60 foot pen and the rocks are in my 40x40 foot garden. I am still a little skeptical about them mixing, as my australorps are bossing my rocks around but are not being violent. The birds each have a coop to sleep in, as I haven't forced the rocks into the australorps' territory yet.
So my questions is, did I just luck out with the birds I have or is this about to get mean and messy when I put my rocks into my australorps' coop? Has anyone else ever mixed these breeds before? My australorps just started laying so I thought Alpha Roo would be very aggressive to Chuckles, the younger rock roo, but other than making noise at each other, they don't really pay much attention to one another.
This is my first mixing and I'm a little scared as I'm out of the house over 8 hours a day teaching. Any advice would be welcome. Thanks in advanced.
