Rooster Bachelor Pad

[Amanita]

Amanita - you will really not need 6 roosters for 20 birds. If you want to keep them that long, it is entirely up to you. A lot does depend on your location, your set up and your own personal goals. I commend you separating off your rooster chicks, they will terrorize the pullets if you don't.

It would be best to keep your pullets without any roosters until they begin to lay. At that time, I would want an older, proven rooster to be a flock master, and keep him with the girls all the time. I am not sure, but I would not recommend adding and pulling roosters multiple times a year. Chickens hate change. Anytime you add or remove a bird, there is a major power struggle and shift. It can be done, but will add a lot of tension to the flock for what purpose? This is the way I do it, and there are lots of ways to do it, just a suggestion.

If you have multiple breeds in your set up, and what to keep them pure, then you will need more roosters. However, a good active rooster should be able to cover all 14 pullets that you have. Personally, I do not like roosters that are raised with flock mates, I much prefer a rooster that is raised up in a multi- generational flock. Another idea, that you might consider is to keep those boys in a smaller area, and feed them well and harvest all of them in a couple of weeks. Roosters are cheap and easy to come by, a rooster raised in the flock, that is so nice, that they have not got quite to culling him. That is the rooster that you want. Then you would not have to wait so long to start hatching chicks.

Mrs K

Ah, yes I should have specified! The chicks I have are from eggs that were gifted to me by a very well known Marans breeder, and not easy to replace. My hope is to work with these lines and establish a good population here in Ireland. Ideally I would have loved to have a mature rooster as you say, Mrs K, but I'm very wary of introducing new birds in case of disease, and I wouldn't be able to get one from the same lines, which would complicate the breeding project. To make things a bit more difficult, there are three varieties among those 20 birds so I don't have a lot of spares.
My hope is that I can minimise drama while raising this first generation and that once they're mature I'll be able to let them co exist without all the swapping around. When I visited the breeder, she had a surprising number of roosters in each pen, and everyone seemed calm and happy so I have a hope that these will be the same, but if not I have plenty of land that I can use to separate them if needs be.

 

[centrarchid]

@Amanita

I have similar need for higher male to female ratio and have to combine mature roosters (cocks) that are 2 to 4 years old into groups of six to ten. Having them dinged up is very much against what I want so during the off season I am confining many singly in pens that are about 1.25 m square with similar height. The pens are small and light enough I can move them about on yard to allow grass to recover.

Keeping them singly as feathers come in until start of breeding season allows assessment of type without social issues causing subordinates to misrepresent what their type is.

 

[Krazy Train]

[QUOTE="In terms of the layout, am I right in thinking that they shouldn't be able to see/hear the pullets while they're separated? Obviously that will be more tricky from a logistics point of view but it sounds like they're more likely to fight among themselves if they can see the ladies?

I just put my guys together last night. There are two that are seven months old and one that is six months old. The older ones had been in a pen together that had a larger flock master rooster and older hens who kept them in line, however I had caught them ganging up on some of the smaller and younger hens in that flock, one would hold a girl down while the other hopped on. The younger cockerel was in with another guy and my other six month old pullets who have just started laying. He has gotten increasingly aggressive and always is on two of my hens to the point that they were bald. I had been out of town for about 10 days and apparently while I was gone is when he turned on them.

So I put them together last night, post roosting, after they had all three been isolated in cages outside all day while I built their enclosure. Chaos ensued briefly until I turned out the lights. Then they all seemed to settle in. When I checked on them this morning, a few hours after sunup, all seemed fine. They are next to a group of pullets that has a rooster with just chicken wire between them. I have plywood at the ready if needed to construct a more solid wall, but I have no way to completely keep them out of earshot of the girls. I will keep you updated on the progress of the integration.

My two flocks are much happier without those three trouble makers. It was so quiet yesterday without my hens screaming!
[/QUOTE]
That is my issue exactly! I’ve been looking for a solution to my three thug bullies. They have gotten so brutal especially with my three new hens and some 10 week old pullets. I have to go put them in their place and run them off the entire time they are free ranging..... Sounds like this is my answer! Thanks for posting!!!!