Bachelor pad for cockerels raised for meat - helpful advice?

[FunClucks]

I hatched 20 of my own eggs and came up with at least 14 cockerels. They are Production Red x Prairie Bluebell mainly, and are flighty, active, and a number of them are aggressive to each other and me. They are only 5 weeks old, and about the size of a songbird, not quite the size of a pigeon, so the people aggression, though annoying, isn't hurtful yet, but the more aggressive ones are already pulling feathers off the backs of the others.

I have them in a 150 sq foot bachelor pad, with some hides and perches. I have the ~6 females in an XL dog crate inside the bachelor pad as I try to determine if they really are female, and in an attempt to avoid males fighting over them. I plan to give the males and females more room as they grow - there's another 150 sq feet I'm using for meat birds for the next few weeks, and then they'll be out of there - I can divide that up as needed to grow out the female eggers and cockerels.

I was hoping to raise these cockerels to 4-6 months in order for them to have enough meat to be worth the time/effort to butcher. But the fact that they're already aggressive and feather picking has me worried. I might try and rehome/sell a few of the nicer cockerels, but being in such an environment will probably not do great things for their personalities.

I could conceivably put the 3-4 worst bullies in another XL dog crate or a double XL dog crate inside the bachelor pad, to try and reduce the stress on the remaining cockerels.

The bullies of course will be eaten first, but what do I do for the next 3-5 months? How can I raise them all with a minimum of injury to each other in a peaceful environment? Or is this just what the bachelor pad will be like?

What would you guys do in this situation?

 

[imacowgirl2]

I would take a wait and see approach…my 6 week old laying chicks are fighting each other like crazy right now, and even trying to take on the 5 week old meat chicks who are more than twice their size (who just look at them like they’re crazy, and walk off lol). In my experience last year, all the chicks fought quite a bit around 4-8 weeks but then got their pecking order established and calmed down significantly.

 

[FunClucks]

I would take a wait and see approach…my 6 week old laying chicks are fighting each other like crazy right now, and even trying to take on the 5 week old meat chicks who are more than twice their size (who just look at them like they’re crazy, and walk off lol). In my experience last year, all the chicks fought quite a bit around 4-8 weeks but then got their pecking order established and calmed down significantly.

I sure do hope they settle down! Guess I'll give them a few weeks and see if things improve. Right now, every time I look over there, someone's got his hackle feathers puffed up or is in some staring contest, or is bumping chests.