Adding new rooster chicks into the coop with earlier hatch? Will this work?

[HollyJB]

Hi everyone,

Quick question. 6 weeks ago we hatched 2 pekin bantams and 1 serama bantam. Of these I ended up with two cockerels and one pullet. We've now just acquired 5 more day-old pekin bantam chicks, genders unknown for a few more weeks. When they hit the 6/7 week mark i'll be looking to try and integrate the 5 new chicks into the coop with the three that will be coming up to about 3 months by that point.

It would only be for the short term, as we will then survey the situation (how many roos and how many pullets we have ended up with) and rehome the roos as needed. Even at this young age, will I likely have trouble putting new cockerels in with the two I already have? i'm hoping we won't have too many more, but would the success be determined by how many are roos from this 5? EG putting two more new ones in would be okay but if three are boys, that would be an issue? Obviously the plan is to separate them inside the coop to begin with to allow them to become aware of each other. Would new roos likely be more accepted if I start this when the new chicks are still very young?

I've had hens for years but this is my first experience of roos so please tell me if this is bound to fail and I will need to rehome my older roos first before any new ones could go in the coop. Thanks much for all your advice!

 

[aart]

Males usually start to seriously fight when they become sexually mature(~4 months old).
Before that how well they get along, as well as any females, may depend on how much space they have to live in. When integrating any birds together, extra space work best.

Look at your long term goals.
You really only need 1 male to be able to hatch chicks.
Keeping multiple males can be a crap shoot.
You either needs lots of space or separate enclosures.
Always best to have a crate or separate enclosure ready for if/when things get ugly.

 

[HollyJB]

Males usually start to seriously fight when they become sexually mature(~4 months old).
Before that how well they get along, as well as any females, may depend on how much space they have to live in. When integrating any birds together, extra space work best.

Look at your long term goals.
You really only need 1 male to be able to hatch chicks.
Keeping multiple males can be a crap shoot.
You either needs lots of space or separate enclosures.
Always best to have a crate or separate enclosure ready for if/when things get ugly.

Thanks so much for replying! We certainly wouldn't be looking to keep them all long term. It would just be in the interim between the new chicks (and any cockerels amongst them) being ready to go out in the coop with the older chicks, and the time it would take to rehome the roosters. I thought with lockdown here it might take a while so wanted to be prepared if I am stuck with all of them for a while