Would you combine the flock?

[anniemary]

We have a coop house that holds our 14 laying hens and 2 roos. The Jersey Giant is the dominant roo over the Barred Rock Roo.

We also kept 4 Freedom Rangers from our meat bird flock to breed next spring. We have a magnificent roo and 3 hens. The meat birds are in a small coop we made this summer based on the kids playhouse coop design found on this website.

Unfortunately, the coop is just not working out this winter. It's too small. We have are having bitterly cold temps in the below 0 range. The birds are not coming out to the water below and because of our design flaws, I'm finding it difficult to get a waterer into the coop without spilling it--very bad I know!!!

I'm thinking I should move the meat birds in with the laying birds. What will happen to the pecking order? The laying birds are very fearful of Big Red. They run away from him when he comes around.

Thoughts?

 

[cabinchicky]

Hi from what I have learned on here mixing them all at once can be a problem if they have never seen each other before. fighting and attacks are very possible. if you can fence off part of your coop for your meat birds so they can see each other it will help.

 

[LRH97]

I would definitely not put the Ranger roo in with the other two. They have established their positions and will fight for them. As for the hens, you can introduce them. The pecking order will be screwed up for a while but things will settle down. I have introduced many hens and roosters (when I don't already have one) to my established flock. When you raise two male birds from chicks, they can coexist peacefully, but it's a bad idea to put two adult male birds that are "strangers" together. Good luck!