I agree that initially the kittens need to be with their own moms. After they get bigger it doesn't matter to much.
I should write up the little experiment that mine have turned into. Initially the 2 moms I was dealing with kept their kittens in their own places. After 2 or three weeks they started moving them to other places. Then the kittens started venturing out on their own. They both had 6 kittens. The moms used to visit the others kittens as when they were making noise they would check it out. But then one mom decided to adopt some of the others kittens. The first time I watched her pick one up and walk off with it. When she put it down in her group I picked it up and put it back. But she just really wanted more kittens so eventually she took 2 from the other litter. That gave her eight and the other four. I decided to just see what would happen. What happened was the kittens with her discovered the food dishes in the kitchen and they took over the kitchen. In order to keep everything fair I started feeding the other four in a small bathroom. They very quickly learned to come when I called them. I tried giving them some wet food, the others were crunching the dry food in the kitchen. Then one of the former members of that litter came to visit and thought the food was better so used to come for dinner. Then another showed up and another. Pretty soon they were just all together and going where they wanted and would all jump on whatever mom made herself available. But while that wasn't a problem there was a problem that developed with my older cats who really didn't appreciate new kittens everywhere. Then it turned out that a lot of the kittens had decided to not use litter boxes unlike their moms and little kitten grenades appeared everywhere. That was not fun. So I decided to expand the experiment to the other to mom that had kittens in my entryway and moved the ones from the house out to join the 10 that were there. To my surprise they merged to form one giant litter. Twenty some kittens all in a pile. I was worried about the youngest which were almost 4 weeks younger than the oldest but despite being smaller they have managed to find someone to nurse on since all 4 moms are now caring for all the kittens. So it's now a collective. And also I am going through food like never before. It's an adventure.
I should write up the little experiment that mine have turned into. Initially the 2 moms I was dealing with kept their kittens in their own places. After 2 or three weeks they started moving them to other places. Then the kittens started venturing out on their own. They both had 6 kittens. The moms used to visit the others kittens as when they were making noise they would check it out. But then one mom decided to adopt some of the others kittens. The first time I watched her pick one up and walk off with it. When she put it down in her group I picked it up and put it back. But she just really wanted more kittens so eventually she took 2 from the other litter. That gave her eight and the other four. I decided to just see what would happen. What happened was the kittens with her discovered the food dishes in the kitchen and they took over the kitchen. In order to keep everything fair I started feeding the other four in a small bathroom. They very quickly learned to come when I called them. I tried giving them some wet food, the others were crunching the dry food in the kitchen. Then one of the former members of that litter came to visit and thought the food was better so used to come for dinner. Then another showed up and another. Pretty soon they were just all together and going where they wanted and would all jump on whatever mom made herself available. But while that wasn't a problem there was a problem that developed with my older cats who really didn't appreciate new kittens everywhere. Then it turned out that a lot of the kittens had decided to not use litter boxes unlike their moms and little kitten grenades appeared everywhere. That was not fun. So I decided to expand the experiment to the other to mom that had kittens in my entryway and moved the ones from the house out to join the 10 that were there. To my surprise they merged to form one giant litter. Twenty some kittens all in a pile. I was worried about the youngest which were almost 4 weeks younger than the oldest but despite being smaller they have managed to find someone to nurse on since all 4 moms are now caring for all the kittens. So it's now a collective. And also I am going through food like never before. It's an adventure.
