Keeping Roosters with Hens or seperate

[Trodore]

I wanted some advice on my flock. I have 2 roosters out of the first 7 I bought and think I have at least 3 roosters from a flock of 8 that are about 5 weeks old. Should I have these roosters in a different pen then my hens? I want to keep at least one rooster for protection, but I also want my hens to grow as big and as fast a possible. I have 15 chicks ranging from 5 weeks to 16 weeks old. I just want to ensure my ladies are going to get what they need to grow and start laying. One of my roosters just started crowing this morning , me and my wife were so proud.

 

[sourland]

Separating the roosters from the hens will result in a better growth rate for the cockerels and will make life far more pleasant for the pullets.

 

[Trodore]

Can they share a coop at night and then go to different runs during the day, or should I have two coops?

An when I am ready to choose one rooster, can I put them all together?

 

[sourland]

Once they reach puberty, cockerels tend to become testosterone driven sex fiends. Multiple roosters gang breeding hens can injure the hens. Separation for just part of the time would only make them worse in their behavior.

 

[Trodore]

So when do I know they are close to puberty? When they start crowing? I may just get them to the dinner table when they get big enough. I don't want to keep alot of roosters, only one. Thank you for all of this information.

And what about the babies that I am not sure of yet? Should I keep them with the pullets?

 

[Ridgerunner]

A lot of that depends on how you feed them and your plans for the cockerels. If you separate them you can feed them differently if you want to. If you are raising the cockerels for meat you might want a pretty high protein feed to enhance growth.

A normal way to feed pullets that will become a laying flock is to feed them a relatively high protein Starter to get them feathered out and off to a good start, then switch to a bit lower protein feed to kind of get their body growth, skeleton growth, and internal organ maturity all in sync. Say a 20% Starter and a 16% Grower. Of course many people don’t do this and feed a fairly high protein feed, say 20% protein, throughout their growth. A 20% feed called “Flock Raiser” is available here but might be called something else somewhere else. It is often used to feed a flock where some will be layers and some will be for meat. There is no one right way or wrong way to do this. We all do it differently and most are pretty much successful.

There won’t be a lot of harassing behavior of the cockerels toward the pullets until the cockerels hit puberty. When will that be? I don’t know, could start around 3 months, maybe not until 4 months. I personally don’t see a lot of benefit in separating them until that starts to happen but you can separate them as soon as you can clearly identify them if you want. It won’t hurt anything.

You can pick one of the cockerels to stay with your pullets now if you wish or separate them all and wait until they grow out to pick which one you want to keep. From reading between the lines your post separating them all might work best for you but I go different route.

Once you separate them, separate them. Like Sour said, back and forth is not good.

You can try to separate them as you identify them. I’m kind of surprised you haven’t seen some puberty behavior by 16 weeks but it should not be long coming. It’s possible it won’t be all that bad since each chicken has its own personality and each flock has its own dynamics, but it usually does get pretty noticeable. The cockerels fighting among themselves is not that big a problem for the pullets, it’s when they start to force mate that the pullets get excited.

 

[Trodore]

Well I have seen the 2 older roosters starting to fight, but my australorp rooster backs off pretty quickly and has started laying by himself. One of my hens seems to be partial to him while the other 4 stay with my Delaware. I have noticed my Delaware running around like a crazy bird from time to time. He runs up on the Australorp and their feathers stand right up. He will run up on my hens, but that only seems to happen after the roosters have a standoff. This morning we got our first crowing from my Delaware so I know they are close.

I got these chickens form a barnyard mix. I was only going for one rooster and 5 hens, but the guy gave us an extra rooster because I showed interest in raising chickens for meat as well. They told me they were 3 months old and that was 2 weeks ago.

Then this weekend, my wife found someone selling 1 month old Lavender Oprhingtons, which is what she wanted. I bought 8 of them on a straight run.

So right now they are all on 20% feed, even though the older chickens could be on 18%.


I have a 24' by 26' area they are staying in right now, with a pine tree in the middle that the love to lay under. I plan to let them out to roam the yard when they get bigger. So I have 8 birds about 5 weeks old and 7 that are closer to 14 then 16 weeks old. I just want to ensure they are safe and happy.

Even though I have been thinking about doing chickens for a few years, it really happened quickly. I am in the process of building them a coop that should be ready by the end of August, when I think my hens will be ready to lay. I have a coop for them at night right now, but it is only for them to sleep in and be protected at night.