Raising roosters

[Stefrrr]

I’m currently the “big chicken” to a flock of 28, including three cockerels I’m keeping, thanks to a huge sexing error at the hatchery. (I ordered two intending to keep one, received seven, now have four, including Stewie.)

The oldest chickens are now about three months old and I have almost no limits on space - a 20x60 barn that can easily be partitioned to coop space, (“Fort Cheepie” complete with hardware cloth is currently about 10x9) and a secure 1200 square foot protected run with 80 square foot covered roost space on two acres. Plus all the time in the world outside of 8-5 now that I’m working from home full time and isolating because of COVID.

For those of you with multiple roosters, how do you keep them? One mega flock with small harems? A bachelor flock? Separate runs and coops?

What works best for you? How did you get there? What did you learn along the way?

What do you watch for when raising cockerels?

Obligatory cute chicken pictures:

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I keep lots of small flocks, but that's because I try to keep my breeds pure. Some roosters get along with others better than others do. I have one male who will protect and care for young roosters until they try breeding. Then he tries to kill them.

Another male behaved when his father was leader. The only rule seemed to be that the younger male was the only one allowed to breed only a certain hen. Of course he isn't as forgiving as his father with the young males i have now.

Personally I recommend seperate flocks

 

[Ruthster55]

I’m currently the “big chicken” to a flock of 28, including three cockerels I’m keeping, thanks to a huge sexing error at the hatchery. (I ordered two intending to keep one, received seven, now have four, including Stewie.)

The oldest chickens are now about three months old and I have almost no limits on space - a 20x60 barn that can easily be partitioned to coop space, (“Fort Cheepie” complete with hardware cloth is currently about 10x9) and a secure 1200 square foot protected run with 80 square foot covered roost space on two acres. Plus all the time in the world outside of 8-5 now that I’m working from home full time and isolating because of COVID.

For those of you with multiple roosters, how do you keep them? One mega flock with small harems? A bachelor flock? Separate runs and coops?

What works best for you? How did you get there? What did you learn along the way?

What do you watch for when raising cockerels?

Obligatory cute chicken pictures:
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Pretty chickens!

What are your goals with having chickens? Your housing and run situation sounds good. The question is more about goals.

How much do you have in the way of resources for buying lumber and hardware cloth? Are you willing to make a number of nest boxes and breeding coops, or are you thinking of doing things as all-one-flock?

If you do all-one-flock on a large amount of land, there will be a few spats but the roosters will probably pick their own harems. In that situation, the hens may not lay all their eggs where you want them to. In this setup, circumstances will likely arise where you need to cull some chickens, whether they are human-aggressive cockerels, egg-eating hens, or hens that go broody not on eggs but on straw.
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If you want to manage matings, keeping multiple roosters will be a bit easier if they can’t see each other and are in various breeding coops. Those coops should also have some sort of goal toward improvement of your birds whether it’s egg-laying or Standard of Perfection. Generally, hatchery chickens are already good for egg-laying.

You will need to select birds in this setup, which means some chicken dinners.

Time plus hammer, nails, and staple gun sound like they are available, which is a wonderful thing. With the resources you have plus some plans, I think you are on the road to self-sufficiency.