do you raise the extra roosters that your going to eat, with your hens or in a seporate pen.
I hatch my own eggs, sometimes with an incubator and sometimes with broody hens. The broody hens hatch and raise their chicks with the flock. My brooder is in the coop so those chicks grow up with the flock too. Depending on how crowded it is in the main coop the brooder raised chicks might range with the rest of the flock at 5 weeks or I might move them to my grow-out coop. These are typically ranging with the rest of the flock at 8 weeks after they have learned where to sleep.
My flock consists of a mature rooster, some mature hens, and maybe as many as four or five different broods of mixed pullets and cockerels growing to butcher size. Most years they all stay together until I butcher the cockerels at 16 to 23 weeks of age. About once every three or four years the boys get so rowdy that I lock some back in that grow-out pen until I butcher them. I don't follow rigorous rules but play it by ear and go by what I see.
Also what do you feed the roosters?
All my chickens eat the same thing, no special diets for any of them. When I have young chicks I usually get a bag of Chick Starter, they all get that. After that they all eat Grower. I offer oyster shell on the side for hens laying eggs. They seem to know they need it.
I have an area inside electric netting, it stays green in growing season. They forage out there a lot. They get kitchen scraps and a lot of garden excess and waste. They also get excess fruits and berries. My cockerels eat the same as all the other chickens. That suits my goals, set-up, and how I want to manage them. Ohers do it totally differently for their own reasons.
I hatch my own eggs, sometimes with an incubator and sometimes with broody hens. The broody hens hatch and raise their chicks with the flock. My brooder is in the coop so those chicks grow up with the flock too. Depending on how crowded it is in the main coop the brooder raised chicks might range with the rest of the flock at 5 weeks or I might move them to my grow-out coop. These are typically ranging with the rest of the flock at 8 weeks after they have learned where to sleep.
My flock consists of a mature rooster, some mature hens, and maybe as many as four or five different broods of mixed pullets and cockerels growing to butcher size. Most years they all stay together until I butcher the cockerels at 16 to 23 weeks of age. About once every three or four years the boys get so rowdy that I lock some back in that grow-out pen until I butcher them. I don't follow rigorous rules but play it by ear and go by what I see.
Also what do you feed the roosters?
All my chickens eat the same thing, no special diets for any of them. When I have young chicks I usually get a bag of Chick Starter, they all get that. After that they all eat Grower. I offer oyster shell on the side for hens laying eggs. They seem to know they need it.
I have an area inside electric netting, it stays green in growing season. They forage out there a lot. They get kitchen scraps and a lot of garden excess and waste. They also get excess fruits and berries. My cockerels eat the same as all the other chickens. That suits my goals, set-up, and how I want to manage them. Ohers do it totally differently for their own reasons.
