New to chickens- rooster question

[Ashkash]

We just finished our coop last week and purchased our first chickens yesterday. We bought a rooster (Delaware mix), 2 silkies, a Cochin, and my son fell in love with bantams so he got a hen and a rooster. I’m concerned with having the small ones in with the larger ones and also have a large rooster and a bantam rooster in the same coop/run. Any opinions?

 

[centrarchid]

Age of birds? Size of pen with pictures?

 

[rosemarythyme]

Were these birds all part of the same flock or are they from different sources or different pens at the same location?

 

[Ashkash]

The silkies are a year old. The bantams are approximately the same. The Cochin is 5 months old but is quite large. The rooster I don’t know, thinking about year or year and a half. The coop is 8x12 and 8 foot tall and the run is 15x20.

The chickens all came from different sources.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

They might be fine, but I would have a back up just in case. I had one pair of roosters that was fine until I separated them for a week, and another rooster that is fine with his sun's until they're about 7 months and then he gets aggressive at them

 

[rosemarythyme]

So they may end up getting along, or the boys might decide to fight it out. If you really want to keep both boys, are you going to be able to house one (or possibly both) separately from the others?

 

[Mrs. K]

My question is, how old is your son? If he is under 6 years old, I would be very wary. Small children can take an attack in the face, and children are usually the first victim of a rooster attack.

I personally think roosters take a bit more experience than hens do. Roosters have ruined the whole chicken experience for a lot of people. As they can become either chicken aggressive as in the roosters fighting, or human aggressive as in attacking people. It can seem to happen in an instant, because inexperienced people often do not recognize the indicators of aggression, or they blame themselves for the first attack. People often underestimate the violence of a rooster attack, if they have never seen one.

I really do not think you do have a compatible flock. You have a lot of different sizes of birds in the set up, two strange roosters decrease the odds. It might work, to be honest, the strangest things sometimes do work. But if it starts not working, you really need to make some animal husbandry type decisions to create a peaceful flock. If it does not work, the only thing you can really do is remove some of the birds from the flock.

I always have a mixed flock of different breeds, I like to tell chickens apart easily, I like an egg basket of different colors. However, I always have same size birds.

Mrs K

 

[Mrs. K]

Another trick that might help, is to make sure there is a lot of clutter in your run. Many people just have an open space, but hideouts, roosts, platforms that birds can get on or under, places to eat out of the sight of other birds eating at a different dish, can also help.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I really do not think you do have a compatible flock. You have a lot of different sizes of birds in the set up, two strange roosters decrease the odds. It might work, to be honest, the strangest things sometimes do work. But if it starts not working, you really need to make some animal husbandry type decisions to create a peaceful flock. If it does not work, the only thing you can really do is remove some of the birds from the flock.

I can slightly agree about two roosters makingbit harder for peace, but I don't agree with the sizes making the flock incompatible. My flock has small bantams like Japanese hens and then larger standards and they're all just fine.

 

[Mrs. K]

JacinLarkwell - did you raise those birds together, or were they all strangers to each other when you put them together?

I think that the fact that the op is new to chickens, putting strange chickens together, that the size difference may cause trouble. However, I do not have experience with that type of flock. I will be interested in your suggestions.