This past spring I ordered about 25 straight run chicks. I had to get large numbers because most were mail orders of specific breeds. Of course this means I’ve ended up with nearly ten (rather lovely) roosters.
I got quite lucky with my English Orpington lot with three Roos to eight hens. They are housed with five older hens of various breeds and are an extremely friendly docile group of chickens. I may have a home for one of the roosters so hoping two roosters to thirteen hens will continue to be manageable.
It’s the number of roosters in my remaining two batches that are proving problematic. I have six silkies, some bantam frizzles and several Polish and Polish/Sultan crosses (some frizzles in this batch as well). I had started a bachelor pen as the roosters started feeling their oats and was up to four living fairly peaceably together. Now there are two more pretty aggressive Polish roosters who I currently have housed together in a smaller pen as I couldn’t successfully incorporate them in the existing bachelor pen.
But, coming soon I fear, are three potential Silkie Roos, and at least one bantam frizzle Roos. I’m hoping to build a separate bantam rooster pen and possibly re-home a couple of the silkie roos.
I guess my problem is that almost all these extra roosters are quite lovely at this point and provide good potential future breeding possibilities with the remaining silkie and Polish hens, so I’d like to buy a bit of extra time as I watch them fully mature. I’ve read stories from at least a few people who have successfully kept rather large diverse bachelor pads separated a distance from the hens to keep them more peaceable. I’m hoping to build one next to our horse barn, but would love to have input from any of you who might have had past success. I know there are rescue rooster places that must have experience with large numbers of roosters together and maybe I could find one of those to contact for ideas.
I got quite lucky with my English Orpington lot with three Roos to eight hens. They are housed with five older hens of various breeds and are an extremely friendly docile group of chickens. I may have a home for one of the roosters so hoping two roosters to thirteen hens will continue to be manageable.
It’s the number of roosters in my remaining two batches that are proving problematic. I have six silkies, some bantam frizzles and several Polish and Polish/Sultan crosses (some frizzles in this batch as well). I had started a bachelor pen as the roosters started feeling their oats and was up to four living fairly peaceably together. Now there are two more pretty aggressive Polish roosters who I currently have housed together in a smaller pen as I couldn’t successfully incorporate them in the existing bachelor pen.
But, coming soon I fear, are three potential Silkie Roos, and at least one bantam frizzle Roos. I’m hoping to build a separate bantam rooster pen and possibly re-home a couple of the silkie roos.
I guess my problem is that almost all these extra roosters are quite lovely at this point and provide good potential future breeding possibilities with the remaining silkie and Polish hens, so I’d like to buy a bit of extra time as I watch them fully mature. I’ve read stories from at least a few people who have successfully kept rather large diverse bachelor pads separated a distance from the hens to keep them more peaceable. I’m hoping to build one next to our horse barn, but would love to have input from any of you who might have had past success. I know there are rescue rooster places that must have experience with large numbers of roosters together and maybe I could find one of those to contact for ideas.
) into there today. I’m hoping if they all get moved into a new spot at the same time, there won’t be a main aggressor, but we’ll see. I’ll take pictures if things work out.
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