Should I separate the roosters?

bluegiantsc

Chirping
7 Years
Jun 7, 2012
201
8
81
York, SC
I have 12 eight week old chicks, 5 of them are roosters. They are starting to show some signs of aggression towards each other. Are they just trying to figure out the pecking order or are they just being roosters? They're pecking each other to bleeding sometimes.
Right now, they're free ranging with their mom and the big rooster is in the coop by himself. My big rooster is highly people aggressive towards me and no one else. Do they pass on the aggressive tendencies to their offspring? There is one baby roo who is showing a little bit of people aggression towards me, he's running up to me and being very forward. The others aren't like that, they shy away but are still friendly.

Should I separate them in a group of just roo's or separate them by themselves in individual pens? Or should I just leave them and let them figure it out for themselves. The big rooster is getting his own smaller pen and then all the babies and the hen are going back into the big coop, but the rooster is very rough with all of them, so I had to separate them. Plus, I needed to be able to get to the babies and the hen without being attacked by the big rooster all the time.

I know that most of the time when roo's are raised together, they get along well. But I don't want them to hurt each other, especially having such a mean parent!
BTW they're all jersey giants.They were broody raised then separated from mom when they were 5 weeks old, due to her picking out a few chicks to try to kill. Then I put her out to range with them and they've resolved their issues and she's teaching them she's top hen!
I'm going to sell most, if not all of the roos, in May. So they won't be here for that much longer.

What do you guys do when they start to act like little roosters?!
 
It is probably pecking order stuff at that point but you may want to separate them into a bachelor pen. Sometimes it depends on the breed but I've found they get along pretty well if they grow up together AND there are no pullets around to compete for.
I raised 10 roosters together to adulthood with no problems. There was one issue when a rooster got lost and was gone for 2 days. When he returned the rest attacked him and I had to put him with a group of hens.

They can also pass that aggression to their offspring. When they get mean, they get one pass. The second time they attack they're resting in the fridge.

Roosters attack predators and other roosters. Predators move fast and other roosters don't bring treats. I always move slowly around them and bring treats. Haven't had a problem in a long time but I only have roos of one breed now and they don't enjoy human contact so they give a wide berth.
 
We use a bachelor pad system as well. It's just less bother for everyone concerned. Since we don't rush to judgement on the selection of our breeding stock until the cockerels are almost a year old, we find it easier to just raise the candidates in a bachelor pad. Of course, the vast majority are headed for the freezer anyhow.
 

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