What will happen if flocks from 2 barns are let out at the same time?

[amsunshine]

We have 2 barns of chickens. In one there are 18 chickens (with multiple roosters--they all grew up together and so far they are all OK together). In the other barn there are 5 chickens (3 of them roosters) and 2 peacocks. We've been letting the 18 chickens in the main barn out for about 3 weeks now, and just today, they are beginning to bleed around the corner and get curious about the chickens in the back barn.

Though the facilities in the back barn are bigger, I do not want the main barn's flock to call the back barn their new home. It's problematic to walk all the way back there to begin with, not to mention much closer to the trees and this back barn has a terrible track record of losing whole flocks to predators in just a couple weeks or months--that's why I made a new coop in the main barn. The room in the main barn will not house 5 more chickens--we're stretching it at 18 as it is.

What do you think will happen if we let the back barn flock free range? I don't want the roosters in that back barn flock to take any of the front barn's hens.

 

[darin367]

if you let them all out its only a matter of time until they're using eachothers coop/barn.. as far as hens, who knows who will end up with who.......

 

[what did I do]

We have 2 coops. Today we left the chickens in while we ground feed and they didn't get out until almost noon. We let the younger ones out first then the older ones. By the time I got to the older chicken's coop there was a younger one trying to get in. As soon as the older chickens left the coop the young chicken we into the coop to lay its egg. It was funny to see. For awhile I knew the older chickens were going into the coop of the younger chickens to lay eggs. BUT, they all go back to their own coop for night.

 

[BlossomSilkies]

We have 2 pens. Bantys and Standards. They share a common wall of fence. We let them all out to free-range in the evenings. Normal chicken dramas now and then, nothing serious.