Can you have a lot of roosters in one pen?

[Silver Sebright]

So a few months ago my niece hatched some eggs at school and was given about 13 baby chicks. The bad thing is half of them are roos. We want to raise them til they are fully grown and sell them. But we don't want them messing with the girls so we are planning on putting them all together in one pen. Will they kill each other or will they just establish who's Alpha and leave each other alone?

 

[chicken4prez]

I have 3 roosters in one pen (28 hens with the roos) and there is one roo that is the boss and pecks the others if they get in his way but there's no blood or fighting. They all get food and water and of course, girls.

By the way they are all easter eggers.

 

[Silver Sebright]

I have 3 roosters in one pen (28 hens with the roos) and there is one roo that is the boss and pecks the others if they get in his way but there's no blood or fighting. They all get food and water and of course, girls.

By the way they are all easter eggers.

Well we were planning on going just roosters no girls. My dad wants to raise them to sell them to either 4H or local feed stores.

 

[chicken4prez]

Well we were planning on going just roosters no girls. My dad wants to raise them to sell them to either 4H or local feed stores.

Hm I'm not sure how that'll work. Since there are no hens to keep them busy then they might turn on each other. I don't have any experience with that though but there should be other members that would know.

 

[lazy gardener]

It's common practice to put all the cockerels in a single grow out pen. No pullets allowed. Peace reigns, until it doesn't. Then, it's time for a BBQ.

 

[lazy gardener]

It's common practice to put all the cockerels in a single grow out pen. No pullets allowed. Peace reigns, until it doesn't. Then, it's time for a BBQ.

 

[SweetTea&Chicks]

I've heard of that before and people calling it a bachelor pad
I've never done it so I'm not sure how it works but give it a shot. If it doesn't work out then it doesn't work out.

 

[Antcohan]

You can keep a pen of only roosters with no hens. If they grow up together they should be fine.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I normally raise my cockerels and pullets with the main flock and it is not that bad. But occasionally the cockerels become a pain so I isolate them in my grow-out pen until they are butcher age, for me around 23 weeks. With no females fight over it becomes pretty peaceful. From my experience bachelor pads work, and this is with cockerels that were a pain. But as LG said, it's still good to have a plan B just in case.

 

[ellenscoop]

Yes, it is called a bachelor flock. I have 6 in mine. However, you need to make sure to provide enough space, watch them closely to make sure there is no fighting (I have web cams), and provide more places for them to get away from the other birds if they need to (roosts, hide spots, etc.).