Roos

[microchick]

I would think that set up would work. The oldest roosters in my bachelor pen are 3 years old and the youngest (the ones I ostracized tonight) are 4 months old. Once they settle in, they all get along or learn to stay out of one another's way. Many of the older birds sit on the roost and I catch them looking down at the younger boys squabbling with one another and I can imagine by the looks on their faces that they are thinking 'Idiots'.

 

[ShawnaLeigh]

I have a bachelor pen with currently about 20 roosters in it. In fact I added three squabbling juveniles (more like opened the door and hurled their nasty bums inside and slammed the door after them with orders to settle it or kill one another I was fine with either outcome)this evening.

My coop is an old shed that we have partitioned into two rooms. A screen door separates the rooms, the smaller room going to the bachelors and the larger is the main coop. The hens and breeding roosters are in full view of the bachelors in both the coop and the run. The breeding roosters do exchange attitudes with the bachelors through the wire but nothing extreme. The bachelors do squabble with one another until they get their pecking order worked out but all in all separating the bachelors has helped their attitudes a lot and the hens appreciate not having the horny juveniles pestering them constantly.

IMHO, keeping them 'out of sight' of one another is overstated and in my case almost impossible to achieve given my coop layout.

Your setup sounds like what my husband and I worked on today for the Roos. Going to put them in their new abodes tomorrow night after they have gone to roost because I can’t catch them. If they act a fool I will fix it to where they can’t see the hens. I know my hens are ready to be rid of them and so am I. Thank y’all for all of your responses.

 

[microchick]

I've kept bachelor groups of cockerels in runs within the range area of hens with few/no issues. I've also had cockerel groups out of sight of any hens with a few individuals who have tried to kill one another.

It's going to depend on the personalities of your cockerels. It may work or it may not, whether or not there are hens around. It may work for now but not next spring. I'm sorry I can't be of much help. All you can do is separate them and see how it works out.

Yes, I have some young hot heads who may try to tunnel their way to the hens once the spring breeding hormones kick in. It's going to be interesting. The older birds don't seem to react too much any more to the change in the seasons. They are just as happy to stay out of the reach of the young hot heads.