Integrating my young pullets and cockerels with my older feisty hens….

[Cheekychook12]

This sounds reasonable but to reiterate your ratio is much different.
5 boys to 4 hens with 7 pullets around same age as the boys correct.
Now I'm speaking of my experience (large fowl) so this may differ but giving you some thoughts here.

5 boys riled up going after 4 hens that won't let them mate. So they go after the 7 pullets. That's 5 on 7. Maybe the hens will school them a bit even attempting to knock the boys off the pullets, but that's alot of chaos especially absent of an older roo.
It might not happen and I could be wrong with the bantam breeds but this is what I foresee with a large fowl flock.
Both my main roosters don't allow mating in their presence in the coop and the boys tow the line, but free range is a lost cause around 14 wks. So I separate at first sight of any misbehaving.

It's completely understandable and I agree, we want to keep our males for breeding but my girls are 1st priority.

I've got 12 boys at the moment so I can relate.

Yeah I’ll seperate them if they get rowdy, and put them in a bachelor pad

 

[Cheekychook12]

I have silkies, more boys than I need, I keep a bachelor pen for the ones who'll get along, and just 1 boy per breeding pen.

I haven't tried doing 2 boys in one pen with hens as I have them color separated right now. I've had some spats through the run fences, mainly with the large fowl. The boys can sure get the hens riled up and upset. I haven't had any injuries though so I just let them get it out if their system, the boys eventually loose interest and wander off (except for the bantam Ameraucanas, they have no quit whatsoever).

I think keeping a double fence between them for a few weeks is your best bet and maybe try creating a bachelor coop and just introduce 1 boy when the time comes.

All my boys get along well so far, they have their own pecking order
Ok thanks for your advice, I’m hoping to rehome so least two

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Awwww, they ARE cute! How big do they get? Like a rat, or closer to dog-sized? They look nocturnal with those big eyes. Are they marsupials? Would they make a good pet?

 

[Cheekychook12]

Awwww, they ARE cute! How big do they get? Like a rat, or closer to dog-sized? They look nocturnal with those big eyes. Are they marsupials? Would they make a good pet?

They are about the size of a large cat
They are nocturnal, I’ve never heard of anyone owning one as a pet, though I don’t know if it’s legal.. usually you can’t own native animals as pets here

 

[BigBlueHen53]

They are about the size of a large cat
They are nocturnal, I’ve never heard of anyone owning one as a pet, though I don’t know if it’s legal.. usually you can’t own native animals as pets here

Probably best.

 

[Cheekychook12]

Probably best.

Yeah, they can be quite friendly though and live in your backyard, so could be sorta like a pet

 

[Cheekychook12]

Emergency storm protocol.. I hope they behave

 

[Cheekychook12]

The great dividing fence has been created… hopefully it works

 

[Love Donkeys]

Yeah, I got them as adults and they hated me
I wish I had hatcheries here, I can only buy locally

I was curious, I looked up poultry hatcheries in Australia. Looks like they are in the area of New South Wales, Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland. Maybe they are too far away from you. Do they send chicks by mail in Australia?

We enjoyed visiting Sydney and Brisbane. Driving on the left side of the road was very interesting. We LOVED the Fish and Chips! Didn't like your Fruit Bats! They were too big and they looked real creepy hanging on the trees.

 

[Cheekychook12]

I was curious, I looked up poultry hatcheries in Australia. Looks like they are in the area of New South Wales, Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland. Maybe they are too far away from you. Do they send chicks by mail in Australia?

We enjoyed visiting Sydney and Brisbane. Driving on the left side of the road was very interesting. We LOVED the Fish and Chips! Didn't like your Fruit Bats! They were too big and they looked real creepy hanging on the trees.

There are probably some, but they are either for meat or egg production chicks, or are very niche that only focus on one kind of breed
most small businesses don’t ship chicks but even if they did I have heard too many horror stories about the postal services.. personally I’d rather pick up birds locally or semi locally or hatch eggs