Help With Pen Setup...Fighting Questions...

[HunterH]

This isn't another show me your pen thread, but rather I have a 4' wide x 8' long x 1.5' tall pen frame built and was wondering how to keep my birds happiest? I'm worried about keeping multiple roosters in it...

Can I keep most of the roosters and some hens together for the ones that will be eaten in 8-12 weeks? How old will they be before they start fighting?

I was planning to split the pen down the middle with plywood, making two 2' wide x 8' long x 1.5' tall pens. Can I keep breeders in this? At a foot per bird each half should be good for 16 birds, so can I keep 3 roosters and 12 hens in it or will the roosters fight? What if I left it 4x8x1.5', could I get away with 4-5 roosters and 24+- hens in it happily?

Or is my only option to partition it into breeding pens 2x2' square?

Thanks for any help. 19 days and counting on the hatch date. I have 44 eggs in one and 10 eggs in another incubator, these are shipped eggs from James Marie Farms so I'm expecting a little better than 50% but this is my first hatch.

 

[TwoCrows]

Are you raising these birds for meat only?

If so, what I would do in this case is butcher all birds by 7 to 8 weeks of age. They won't be as hormonal and breeding, so there should be less fighting going on. Keep these young birds slated for the table in their own section of this cage/pen. I don't like keeping adult males with harems in the same cage with other males and their ladies. So I would devote other parts of this section or build more pens of 2x4 for each group...say 1 male to 5-7 females. You can use these as breeder birds, butcher as necessary, (those that aren't good layers, fight too much, have other issues) and replace these groups as needed with young stock. I like to give them a bit more than 1 square foot per bird to keep the peace and give them more room, but this is up to you.

Good luck with the hatch!! Keep us posted too!!

 

[HunterH]

Well, we definitely want a decent amount of laying hens with fertile eggs to keep us with enough eggs to hatch in the future and enough eggs to eat... and then maybe the other half of the pen to be used as a grow out pen like you said up to 8 weeks or so. Is that their full size? Or at least butchering size? They are jumbo pharaoh meat birds from JMF.

Maybe I divide it length wise into 2x8' and then one side of it into 2x4' and go with 2 roosters to 12-14 hens, half in each 2x4 section? Maybe make the dividers that turn it into 2x4' removable if we want 4 roosters in the future... Then the other half of the pen would be the ones for butchering?

Thanks so much.

 

[James the Bald]

Another thing to keep in mind, is the "the depth" of your cage... in this case, 4'. If you had to reach in to remove a bird, unless your arm is 48" long, you can't reach the back of your cage. The quail for my bobs is 30", and I still have a difficult time when I have to reach in for one particular bird.
James

 

[TwoCrows]

They may grow larger in time, but meat gets tough the older the bird gets. So I would butcher at 7 or 8 weeks give or take a few.

You can play around with whether or not two males with harems will work. However if you have a weaker male, he will be subject to aggression.

I always mix and match with quail. There will always be birds that just don't get along and some that will work great in all conditions. So just work with them till you come up with the right birds in the right environment.

 

[HunterH]

Thanks guys. Getting excited!

 

[Fat Daddy]

. I would advise against loading one pen with several roos. You may be able to get away with it short term, but eventually there will be blood. I always ran several grow out pens for young roos, culls and meat birds. In a grow out pen, the larger you get , the more you can crowd the 1 sq ft per bird rule of thumb. Being a covey bird by nature, they dont tend to spread out that much. When one becomes aggressive, its usually directed at just one pen mate at a time. When they are in a grow out pen with many other birds, the victim can get lost in the crowd most of the time and get a break. I tend to butcher both the victim and the aggressor early. Like the others said you dont have alot of trouble till love is in the air. It starts about 6 weeks and past 8 weeks, all bets are off. I like the concept of cut'n the pen you mentioned long ways. Then splitting one or both sides.... 4'x2' is plenty for a large breeding group. To be honest you can get lot of young birds in this space as a grow out situation too...
Folks tend to over estimate the number of birds you need to provide meat and eggs for your family and even a few friends. If you carry one good group of breeder birds with 6 hens and 1 roo. You can bank on 5 eggs a day and fertility will be high. That's 35 eggs a week or 50 eggs every ten days. I dont like to hold eggs for hatching more than 10 days. Figure a 18 day incubation, and that leaves you saving eggs for eating or gifting to friends, for 8 days before you need to start collecting for the next batch. 8 day x 5 eggs is 40 extra eggs before you start saving for your next 50 in the bator. Think pickle eggs here! This pattern will keep your bator constantly cooking 50 eggs. First thing you know ,you dont have enough brooders or grow out pens to keep up..... I would suggest you cut your 4'x8' pen into (4), 2'x4' pens..... Start with 2 as breeder pens and two as grow out. I would bet it wont be long before you have 1 group of breeders and 3 grow out pens. And you'll be needing a good pickled egg recipe too ..... Good luck, Bill

EDIT TO ADD: I have (4) 2'x4' wire grow out pens. These are inside my shop. I usually load these with birds two weeks old, straight out of the brooder. 18 to 22 birds normally do well in each for meat bird production. This is on a 8 week old butcher cycle.....

 

[HunterH]

. I would advise against loading one pen with several roos. You may be able to get away with it short term, but eventually there will be blood. I always ran several grow out pens for young roos, culls and meat birds. In a grow out pen, the larger you get , the more you can crowd the 1 sq ft per bird rule of thumb. Being a covey bird by nature, they dont tend to spread out that much. When one becomes aggressive, its usually directed at just one pen mate at a time. When they are in a grow out pen with many other birds, the victim can get lost in the crowd most of the time and get a break. I tend to butcher both the victim and the aggressor early. Like the others said you dont have alot of trouble till love is in the air. It starts about 6 weeks and past 8 weeks, all bets are off. I like the concept of cut'n the pen you mentioned long ways. Then splitting one or both sides.... 4'x2' is plenty for a large breeding group. To be honest you can get lot of young birds in this space as a grow out situation too...
Folks tend to over estimate the number of birds you need to provide meat and eggs for your family and even a few friends. If you carry one good group of breeder birds with 6 hens and 1 roo. You can bank on 5 eggs a day and fertility will be high. That's 35 eggs a week or 50 eggs every ten days. I dont like to hold eggs for hatching more than 10 days. Figure a 18 day incubation, and that leaves you saving eggs for eating or gifting to friends, for 8 days before you need to start collecting for the next batch. 8 day x 5 eggs is 40 extra eggs before you start saving for your next 50 in the bator. Think pickle eggs here! This pattern will keep your bator constantly cooking 50 eggs. First thing you know ,you dont have enough brooders or grow out pens to keep up..... I would suggest you cut your 4'x8' pen into (4), 2'x4' pens..... Start with 2 as breeder pens and two as grow out. I would bet it wont be long before you have 1 group of breeders and 3 grow out pens. And you'll be needing a good pickled egg recipe too ..... Good luck, Bill

EDIT TO ADD: I have (4) 2'x4' wire grow out pens. These are inside my shop. I usually load these with birds two weeks old, straight out of the brooder. 18 to 22 birds normally do well in each for meat bird production. This is on a 8 week old butcher cycle.....

Thanks a ton! I think I'm going to split it into fourths then! Maybe with removable partitions. Sounds like we will be raising a bunch of meat birds.