Keeping roosters of different breeds from fighting.

[MyNYfarm]

I'm hoping to get some advice on managing roosters of different breeds withouts having to have multiple coops (if possible).

I have 5 separate pure-breeds of chickens.

All 5 breeds consist of a rooster TOTALLY UNRELATED to the hens.

I want to sell hatching eggs and chicks and I didnt want the rooster to be the brother of the hens, so I carefully selected unrelated stock.

My dilemma is, how do I keep the 5 different roosters from fighting with each other while they are out on the property free-ranging during the day?

I have 10-12 hens of all 5 breeds (more eggs in incubators) and 1 unrelated rooster of each breed.

They are finally big enough to roam the property during the day, but I fear the roosters fighting.

I'm not concerned with cross breeding for the eggs I plan to collect to eat.

I will have 5 separate coops/runs to keep each breed separated in when I want to collect eggs for hatching to be sure there is no cross- breeding.
3 are made, hubby is building the final 2 now.

That will work fine to keep the breeds pure when I need to, but I'm still concerned about 5 roos and 60 hens NOT fighting when they are out in the day?

Ideas? Suggestions?

2nd question, do the roos behave themselves with the gals in the coop at night? They will be in coops from sundown to sunrise.

This is my first time trying multiple breeds with the intent on collecting/selling pure breed hatching eggs and want to be sure I'm not over looking anything?

Thank you

 

[Mrs. K]

I think I need more information as to the age of the hens and age of the roosters. Young birds are called cockerels and pullets. About a year of age they are considered hens and roosters.

If I understand correctly you have 50-60 hens of five different breeds. You have carefully gotten roosters of these breeds from somewhere else so that these roosters are strange to each other.

You plan to free range them all together during the day for eating eggs. Now do you plan for each breed to return to there coop? Or do you have a large coop for day to day, with smaller coops to set up with rooster and hens for pure breeding?

In my opinion if I had 6 coops and runs, I would have a layer flock with my less than perfect hens. Then in the smaller flocks, I would have 2-3 of my best hens according to the SOP and their roo. I would let each mini flock out to free range on their own day.

But I am pretty sure I don’t quite understand the situation. Really the only way people can keep fighting roosters from fighting is to keep them apart. Not all will fight if you have enough room. But some will.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm not concerned with cross breeding for the eggs I plan to collect to eat.

I will have 5 separate coops/runs to keep each breed separated in when I want to collect eggs for hatching to be sure there is no cross- breeding.
3 are made, hubby is building the final 2 now.

I trust you know you need to keep the hens separated from any rooster you do not want to be a potential father for a month before you start collecting hatching eggs?

They are finally big enough to roam the property during the day, but I fear the roosters fighting.

That will work fine to keep the breeds pure when I need to, but I'm still concerned about 5 roos and 60 hens NOT fighting when they are out in the day?

With living animals you do not get guarantees when it comes to behaviors. It is a nice fantasy but you just don't get guarantees that they will or will not fight.

I don't know how old they are now, it sounds like they are probably juveniles. Regardless of age they will determine a pecking order for the entire flock. That means one will be dominant and the others will be ranked under that one. Sometimes a lot of that is determined fairly peacefully (at least for most of them) but it practically always involves intimidation and bullying. Usually it involves some fighting for the top spots. Usually these fights for the top spots involve the boys but especially as juveniles some girls can be involved.

These fights may be fights to the death. Often one determines it is better to run away than keep fighting and be killed, especially if they have a lot of room to run away and stay away. Sometimes they are more like play fights, not that serious and quickly over. Sometimes one gets injured and a flock can kill an injured bird. The more room they have the more likely they are to both survive.

2nd question, do the roos behave themselves with the gals in the coop at night? They will be in coops from sundown to sunrise.

What do you mean behave themselves? They are not likely to try to breed a hen while they are on the roosts. On the coop floor it could be a different story.

If you have more than one rooster in there they may not fight or they might, especially if locked in there after they wake up. With living animals you do not get guarantees.

I'm hoping to get some advice on managing roosters of different breeds withouts having to have multiple coops (if possible).

It sounds like you are going to have five? I don't know what they look like,
what their restrictions might be, or how they could be used.

My dilemma is, how do I keep the 5 different roosters from fighting with each other while they are out on the property free-ranging during the day?

The only way to guarantee that is to keep them separated all of the time, no free ranging together.

Another possibility that sometimes works is to have a bachelor pad. Lock the roosters together in a coop and run with no females around. If there are no females to fight over often they don't fight, at least that seriously. They will have their own pecking order. If you remove one to breed certain hens they may have to reset the pecking order when you take one out or put one back but some people get this to work.

But getting them to free range together without fighting, especially with the hens around, well, it is hard to get them to go against their natural instincts.

 

[MyNYfarm]

I trust you know you need to keep the hens separated from any rooster you do not want to be a potential father for a month before you start collecting hatching eggs?


With living animals you do not get guarantees when it comes to behaviors. It is a nice fantasy but you just don't get guarantees that they will or will not fight.

I don't know how old they are now, it sounds like they are probably juveniles. Regardless of age they will determine a pecking order for the entire flock. That means one will be dominant and the others will be ranked under that one. Sometimes a lot of that is determined fairly peacefully (at least for most of them) but it practically always involves intimidation and bullying. Usually it involves some fighting for the top spots. Usually these fights for the top spots involve the boys but especially as juveniles some girls can be involved.

These fights may be fights to the death. Often one determines it is better to run away than keep fighting and be killed, especially if they have a lot of room to run away and stay away. Sometimes they are more like play fights, not that serious and quickly over. Sometimes one gets injured and a flock can kill an injured bird. The more room they have the more likely they are to both survive.


What do you mean behave themselves? They are not likely to try to breed a hen while they are on the roosts. On the coop floor it could be a different story.

If you have more than one rooster in there they may not fight or they might, especially if locked in there after they wake up. With living animals you do not get guarantees.


It sounds like you are going to have five? I don't know what they look like,
what their restrictions might be, or how they could be used.


The only way to guarantee that is to keep them separated all of the time, no free ranging together.

Another possibility that sometimes works is to have a bachelor pad. Lock the roosters together in a coop and run with no females around. If there are no females to fight over often they don't fight, at least that seriously. They will have their own pecking order. If you remove one to breed certain hens they may have to reset the pecking order when you take one out or put one back but some people get this to work.

But getting them to free range together without fighting, especially with the hens around, well, it is hard to get them to go against their natural instincts.

Thank you. I appreciate your detailed and as always, very well written answer. It pretty much confirms what my gut instinct told me. I will try to let them all free range and if I see fights beyond an occasional peck then the roosters will go into a bachelor pad. Right now I have two very large chicken coops with attached runs, and two more runs that are very large that we are fastening to our barn and will be cutting a hole in the barn to make unused horse stalls into coops as needed. I suspect as I dive into this adventure I may pair down the number of breeds I keep, not sure which ones will be my favorites but time will tell and the behavior/birds temperament will also be a guiding factor.
They will have seven acres to Roam on, hopefully they will segregate themselves into groups peacefully but if not, I will take the necessary steps to keep everyone healthy and safe. Again, I appreciate your response. One last question, I can't figure out how to quote parts of a reply as you did to me. I see the quote button but it's doesn't seem to do what it should do. Can you explain it or give me a link where there might be a tutorial? Thank you

 

[MyNYfarm]

I think I need more information as to the age of the hens and age of the roosters. Young birds are called cockerels and pullets. About a year of age they are considered hens and roosters.

If I understand correctly you have 50-60 hens of five different breeds. You have carefully gotten roosters of these breeds from somewhere else so that these roosters are strange to each other.

You plan to free range them all together during the day for eating eggs. Now do you plan for each breed to return to there coop? Or do you have a large coop for day to day, with smaller coops to set up with rooster and hens for pure breeding?

In my opinion if I had 6 coops and runs, I would have a layer flock with my less than perfect hens. Then in the smaller flocks, I would have 2-3 of my best hens according to the SOP and their roo. I would let each mini flock out to free range on their own day.

But I am pretty sure I don’t quite understand the situation. Really the only way people can keep fighting roosters from fighting is to keep them apart. Not all will fight if you have enough room. But some will.

Actually you understand the situation quite well. Yes and yes. I have young pullets and cockerels. Five different breeds. The pullets and cockerels are absolutely positively unrelated. They aren't of egg laying age yet but it won't be long. Currently I have two very large coops with runs attached to them and we have just built two more runs that we are going to connect to our barn. We have a 16 stall horse barn that came with the property and have no horses so I am converting the stalls into chicken coops, some of them anyway. will cut a hole in the barn wall to That will lead directly into each individual run, and that to be the nighttime coop. So each breed has its own run and on nighttime coop. We are in the stage of covering the slats in the stalls with hardware cloth so bird species don't mingle at night.

Just before we purchase the property, the prior owner added on to the barn and there is a 100 ft long by 30 ft wide room where stalls were going to go but she never put them in so that too can be a giant coop. For the birds that get along okay and I will see what time, that is an option for housing them at night.

Of course that will change when I want to have fertile eggs, I know I have to not allow any other roosters other than the breed specific rooster or at least 30 days.

I would like to be able to keep the rooster of each breed in with the hens overnight simply for safety reasons. We have solar door openers on a timer that will open very early and hopefully that will allow everyone out before there is any ruckus.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I can't figure out how to quote parts of a reply as you did to me. I see the quote button but it's doesn't seem to do what it should do. Can you explain it or give me a link where there might be a tutorial? Thank you

Use the reply button. If you can't figure it out, ask.

 

[Mrs. K]

It sounds like you have a lot of space, and that helps a lot with chickens.

I think roosters are a crap shoot. And it will be very discouraging if one of those boys that you so carefully picked out turns out rotten. Roosters can go wrong in three ways, if I read your set up right, you are only considering one of them.

• They fight each other. With a lot of space, this can work itself out or one of them is dead, or both of them is injured. It is a crap shoot.
• They are not good to their hens. This tends to be more true in juvenile birds, which is what you are starting with. They can run a pullet ragged, giving her no peace.
• They are aggressive towards people. Some people can take quite a bit of abuse, and others do not like it at all.

A lot of times, people toot a bachelor pad as the solution to too many roosters. That too is a crap shoot. Sometimes it works for a while, sometimes it stops working.

A lot of people have separate runs for separate breeds and have had roosters fight with the fence between them. A sheet of cardboard or something else to block the sight can help there.

I think I would run all the pullets together without the juvenile roosters. So pullets in one pen, cockerels in the other at this point until the hens start laying. If you want to 'free range them' then do so on opposite days.

One should not hatch pullet eggs, so you have time to look at your adult birds very carefully. Then begin studying the SOP's. A few weeks ago, we had a very good discussion on just what those mean. When you pullets come into lay, begin to pick your very best chickens according to that. You should not plan on hatching eggs from all of your chickens, just your best chickens. Those girls and the cockerel would be kept in their own flock.

So you would have a laying flock and a breeding hatching flocks with a few hens and their roosters. I would keep them separate from then on. Chickens hate change, it causes a lot of stress in the flock.

I would love to see some pictures of your set up.

Mrs K