Bachelor Roo pad?

[Saffron2]

In the MN winters, my chickens are limited to a small run and most days don't go out because it is snowy. I am thinking of making my brooder room into a bachelor pad for the winter to give the girls a break. My coop is divided into three rooms~~ storage entry 10 x4, main room 10 x 16 and brooder 10x6. The main room and brooder are separated with chicken wire and door, so they can see but not touch. I have six roos that I hate to cull but will if necessary. I am thinking the boys could live in small brooder room for the winter and the girls would have the main room. They all live together now free-ranging and kind of have their own cliques but I have too many roos for my 30 girls to handle it in a confined space. Or maybe I just have to get rid of 2-3 roos? Rather not come out of winter with bare back ladies again...

 

[sonew123]

Quote:
If your roosters get along then a bachelor pad would be great for the Winter. ( If you NEED to keep all 6) 6 roos for 30 girls is alot-what about culling 3-4 of them and still keeping them all together?

 

[Saffron2]

Agree, I am a reluctant culler but know it must be done. Always wishing it were not so. Think the 3 1/2 year old should go along with my feisty barred rock. then have to decide between the bantam lakenvelder and bantam barred, plus the two marans mutts. So hard! I would make a terrible juror!!

 

[NewToFarming]

I tried a bachelor pad once and it did not work out for me. They had their little spats before but once I put them in the bachelor pad, one of the roos really beat up on another sweet boy. I thought he was going to lose his eye but he ended up being just fine with some TLC. Just be careful and watch them initially. I know it can and does work for some but my experience was not a good one. What I did then was allow the boys to free range and have an outside pen for the girls and some of the more meeker boys. I then put everyone back into the big coop at night though and that seemed to work out pretty good for me.