Overbreeding

[ValleyFarm]

Hello,
I recently (at the beginning of this summer) got into raising chickens. At first, I was just interested in raising a couple chickens for eggs, but as I read and learned more, I fell in love with them and want to breed the various breeds I have. I have about 20 four month or older chickens who all get along fine and am brooding 40 chicks at the moment. We have two coops and runs that are attached to each other, one run is about 120 square feet and the other is 614. I am trying to determine the best way to split the two groups. My problem is that I have about 8 different breeds with 4 hens and 1 rooster (the remaining are all random laying hens), but if I were to put them all together, I imagine it would be too many roosters with the hens and overbreeding and fighting would occur. Should I just put all the roosters in the small run and all the hens in the big run and then temporarily put the ones I want to breed together separately? Would the roosters still be inclined to fight since there are no hens to fight over? All of the roosters that are currently older are pretty docile and get along and the other roosters will be raised together from chicks.

 

[Chiklette]

The roosters will most likely fight anyway. Its not all about the hens, its the pecking order too. They might eventually stop fighting, but not without shedding blood. I would recommend getting another pen where you would put the breeding pair together.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Depends on breeds and temperament of individuals.
Often a large group of roos can live together without hens. There will still be a pecking order issue.
Do you mean you have 4/1 of each breed?
You might want to divide up the big run with breeder pens and put pairs or trios in there or just the 4/1s.