re-combining 2 roosters

[gladahmae]

I wish this weren't an issue, but no one seems to want my FREE EE roo, so I'm stuck with him until at least we get our meat chickens butchered in July. I have 2 cockerels/roosters that are about 8mo old. They were raised together, and cooped separately from the hens until March when I decided to put the EE roo in with the hens so I could hatch more EEs this spring. At this point I'd like to get down to just 1 roo, and I NEED the 2nd coop to move chicks into.
The EE roo is in our "big" coop (8x10) with 11 pullets/hens and the other roo, a Wyandotte, is in the "small" coop (5x7) with 4 hens. I'd like to put everyone into the big coop. The 2 roos have had a shared fence since I separated them 3 months ago, and don't fight through it.

Neither have shown any aggression towards people or my kids, which is why they've made it this long.

If I'm going to combine them, should I do it at night? Put the girls in the coop and put the boys in the run and let them figure it out? Just put everyone together and let them figure it out?

 

[Den in Penn]

Tough one. I see problems with either approach. Since they still know each other and you are putting the two flocks back together, putting them together at night would be the way to go. A lot of people who breed recombine flocks all the time after they are done breeding for the year.

 

[gladahmae]

Yeah. It's not going to perfect either way unfortunately. It'll be easier to catch them all at night so I guess I'll do it that way. Hopefully I can get the small coop cleaned out tomorrow and get the chicks moved out.

 

[Blue]

If they were raised together and have been penned right next to each other without any fighting through the wire, you may not have too much trouble putting them back together.