for some reason my cockerel and all the ginger hens hang around together then all the pure breeds hang around together then the colourful cross breeds hang around together?
I've seen other animals do this too- my finial opinion was that animals: 1) (reasonable answer) Like zebras they want to make a huge see of confusing patters or one huge area of color like buffalo so they group by color by choice 2) (also reasonable answer) they were purchased from different places or at different times are are two separate flocks. 3) (a possibility, bids see full color) Animals choose fitness by color, a healthy lion has a thick dark mane, a young, sick, or elderly male has a straggly or light-colored mane - so female lions choose thick and dark, then dark, then light and thick then light and thin for breeding reasons. Rats choose by color also, but will most often choose a mate of the same color as them or the 'wild type' color. Gorrillias and silverbacks - this list goes on and on. 4) (a joke) You have racist birds and should teach tolerance as soon as possible....
When I have a larger mixed flock that has four or more of any one breed, I've seen mine hang out in little sub-flocks, by breed. Not all the time, but they do it sometimes when they're out foraging for the day. This is with chickens that were brooded together, too. I just wanted to add that I never had different colors/varieties of one breed in the same flock. All the chickens I had of one breed were the same color.
My three youngest (welsummers) all group together but are sometimes found with the other 6. The other 6 are generally together but they are all quite different.
