When/how can I mix these flocks?

polychickens

In the Brooder
12 Years
Apr 23, 2007
95
3
39
My first 'batch' of chickens are now 13.5 weeks old and consist of 8 roosters and 6 hens. After that I bought 15 pullets which are now 9.5 weeks old.

When could I mix these? My concern is that when I have allowed the 2 flocks to comingle for very short trials, the little ones get attacked...especially by the huge brown leghorn roosters. I don't think the barred rock roosters would bother the youngsters so much. Should I just isolate the leghorn roosters from the whole flock or mix them all and let the pecking order work itself out? I could alternatively mix all the hens together, and put all 8 roosters in a seperate coop.

I do not want any hens to end up injured or dead. I'd rather kill off the leghorn roosters or isolate them than lose a hen.

Is there a real risk with these ages or should I just let it happen?

Thanks and sorry so long! How would you approach this?
Polychickens
PS: Oh, and one of my 9.5 week girls is a boy! I figure he is toast regardless....
 
I had a similar situation, with six 14 wk olds and ten six wk olds. But no roos.
What I did is set up a separate area in the run so that they could see each other in the day time, but were separated by wire screen panels.
At night they were in the coop with the younger ones enclosed in a wire crate.
About a week and a half of this, and the screens came down, the crate disappeared.
Everyone gets along fine.
Good luck!
 
Ok, so I figured out that older roosters are an absolute danger if younger hens are introduced. I doubt that all my chickens will ever integrate since there are 8 roosters and 37 hens total--the hens being 3 different ages.

SOOoo...I kicked the roosters out to free range by themselves (except for the roo that was supposed to be a girl and is younger). Then I opened up the three different coop areas plus the run so that it is one big contained area with several different 'rooms' so to speak.

37 girls ages 5 weeks, 9.5 weeks, and 13.5 weeks plus one 9.5 week rooster running around together...or not...

The little ones are getting chased and pecked quite a bit, but not the murderous attempts like the big roosters try. The three age-related flocks seem to seperate out even when allowed to roam the whole house and run. I count this a success so far and will continue to try to integrate.

I am pretty sure that the big roosters will need to have seperate quarters long term. Not sure how to get roosters to get along with younger hens???


Just rambling so that maybe someone can offer advice or learn from my experience.

Polychickens
 

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