McChooky
Free Ranging
No truer words spoken! Most cockerels start out sweet and become jerks overnight.I just raised 2 of them and only one of them is a gentlemanRaising a cockerel with flockmates generally backfires. The cockerel gets bigger and becomes sexually active long before the pullets. Without older hen to keep them in line they often become very aggressive to pullets and to people. Inexperienced people vastly underestimate the violence and aggression of a rooster,
People who are animal lovers often have misconceptions about chickens. Being raised together has almost no influence on adult behavior. Another is friendly chicks that readily approach you are loving being with you, That is not true, they have no fear which can make them aggressive.
As AArt, a respected poster here says, “roosters are where the romance of raising chickens meets reality.” Often it is not pretty.
Right now it is hard to imagine how big your birds will be. What is enough room for chicks rapidly becomes not enough room for full size birds. Flocks with roosters need more room than recommended.
Best advice is to raise the pullets, get some experience and then raise up a couple of cockerels and cull to the best one. If you cannot cull a rotten rooster, do not get roosters. There are a lot of rotten roosters no matter how you raise them.
Mrs K