Rooster Flocks!

[PoultreeKing]

Chickens are extremely cheap to feed so I can't see how five Roosters is much of a burden. I just added up my feed costs and it costs me an average $10-12/year per bird in feed. That's in comparison to $300/year for each of my two dogs (wholesomes feed from TSC which is about $35 for a 40# bag so one of the cheapest yet very good quality). Yes, the chickens aren't as interactive as the dogs, though I did have a goose that liked to go on runs with me and my black furred running partner Still I love to just sit and watch them. I don't want 100 birds trying to sit in my lap anyway and I do my best not to get them food tame because that's just annoying, the same as having a dog that begs.

Yes my man but 10$ per bird times 90 bird is 900$ per year so add 5 roosters and that's 50$ extra money, business wize that is a loss. Unless you harvest the meat or use them for breeding, but if they are in a pen or coop as 5 roosters for no reason then it's a waste of money and space but again most people here are about the fun and love for chicken and they wouldn't care about 50$ per year

 

[pineapple416]

We have three roos in our flock of 17 hens. The oldest is a bantam Brahma, who is a very sweet boy who guards his hens with his life. We also have a young Silkie cockerel who just started crowing a few weeks ago. Our last roos is a 1 year old partridge Silkie who is very docile, and gets along great with the roosters for the most part, but is bullied by the hens so he and another Silkie hen had to be separated.

 

[lalady59]

RoostersAreAwsome can you tell us how you integrated your cockerels to your roosters' pad?. Since I have been interested in having a "bachelors pad" for a while, I have been researching about it. What I have read is that it is hard to integrate roosters but it makes sense adding them when they are young. I would guess that a lot has to do with their personalities, if the alpha is very aggressive, that makes it almost quite impossible to add more.

View attachment 603233

These were my 2 roosters, they lived together for more than a year, they had fights every now and then but nothing serious. I still have the one in the back, he is with 16 hens and he is a happy rooster.

Can your roosters see the hens? My plan is to keep them in their own coop, run and yard but there is a fence that joins the yard where the hens are, I plan to cover that fence with a dark tarp so the roosters cannot see them but they will be able to hear them, I wonder if that will influence their behavior.

I want to ask what breed are these 2 in this picture?

 

[CHRISTINE BOLES]

Do the other chickens bother your chicks from another hen.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Ok hope i did this rite to reply. Still learning the new set up.

As for my plans of roo flock... Just a few bc i fell in love with the "mistake" roos.. So i was figuring a big coop and run on other side of duck runs.. That way they are not "next door" to the ladies...as for more.. Idk yet. Still discussing with the builder (dh)..

Still excited that it can be done...

Also, what kind of feed? I read that layer is for ladies? So what kind do i feed them? Also what kind of obstacles? Barrels? Boxes? What stuff will keep them occupied and happy?

This is reply to jchny2000. I messed up the quote n reply thing srry

Layer feed is bad for roosters because it has too much calcium. You can feed your roosters grower feed, all flock, or flock raiser. If you have a larger rooster flock I suggest having 2 or 3 waterers and 2 or 3 feeders so all the roosters can get food and water.

I understand your point of view but i am starting a business project in poultry and because i am not supported financially yet, i would feel the weight of these 5 roosters, also it depends on the way you look at them if you see them as pets then they are the same as cats and dogs, but i have 90 birds and 3 cats the birds are my money makers also it's my hobby to raise poutry and i love it, the cats are more of pets simply because if you have 1-3 cats it doesn't harm you financially and most people don't get more than that unless you're a cat lady.
But chicken grow and breed very quickly and normally even if you only have layers you will want to get more, and grow your flock.

If i had 5 roosters they wouldn't be pets because i don't spend much time with them, i would watch them from a distance for a couple of hours but you can't interact much with chicken like you can with dogs and cats, that's why dogs and cats are pets, a chicken can be considered a pet but only if your flock is small, like 1-15 chicken maybe, that way you will enjoy spending time with them and feeding them and watching them and you will pamper them with treats and such things, some will let you pet them, but again you can't compare it to dogs and cats, because a chicken doesn't interact with you as well as dogs and cats do, not even close.

And finally, business wise, i would be paying for food and care and giving time and cage space to 5 roosters, that eat a lot actually, and i would be gaining nothing, if you have a plan for them, work on it quickly, put the ones you want to breed with the hens, and harvest the rest. But this is only for me not for everyone, it's only my opinion and i respect yours.

I actually like my roosters more then my hens, they sit on my lap more and are easier to catch and hold. To reduce feed costs, I free range my roosters once or twice a week while keeping the hens in their coop. I also feed my chickens scraps.

 

[PoultreeKing]

Layer feed is bad for roosters because it has too much calcium. You can feed your roosters grower feed, all flock, or flock raiser. If you have a larger rooster flock I suggest having 2 or 3 waterers and 2 or 3 feeders so all the roosters can get food and water.



I actually like my roosters more then my hens, they sit on my lap more and are easier to catch and hold. To reduce feed costs, I free range my roosters once or twice a week while keeping the hens in their coop. I also feed my chickens scraps.

Good idea, mine can't free range because they live on my rooftop, i do let them out of their cages to run around but there isn't any dirt or grass, i do feed them scraps as well, but i find my hens calmer and friendlier, but it all depends on the breed tho.

 

[MTRBLE]

I am not sure if I am posting this correctly or even in the right place so please forgive me if I have it all wrong.
So what had happened was.......I went to Ace Hardware on mothers day to pick up a plumbing part for my husband and came with 3 little "Meep meeps" what we call the baby chickens because they sound like little meep noises and we are clueless. one died after day 2 and the other two have turned out to be roosters. I cried my heart out at the first one being a rooster and hoped and hoped that the other one would be a hen because I thought I would have to get rid of them. This morning we had a little crow off confirming my awaiting second heartache.
Now I read that I can keep them even though they are both roosters maybe.... They do not like to be separated at all, they will squawk if one of them is out of the pen area or being held and the other isn't. They cuddle up under each other and sit/lay down together all the time too but they also do the bump chest thing and goose each other as well as try to jump on top of each other. Their neck feathers stand up and one of them tends to peck on the top of the head but not hard or too hard from what I can tell. One of them always runs off, the other chases they change positions on this and then they get sidetracked.
We were thinking we needed to get some hens and couldn't keep them both but we would be happiest if we could just keep them both and not get any hens at this point as we didn't get them for eggs. I didn't even know there were so many different kinds of chickens. The ones we have are silkies although I do not know if they are full silkie or have been breed with another breed or how to tell that.
I am painting their chicken coop now and making a more permanent area for them. I would appreciate any information I can get on what I need to do or make sure I have as I set it up for them as well as what I need to look for to know if they will not be ok to stay together. We did make them a little portable house that they go into in the evening and that comes in the house at night and we take them back out in the morning. Also do Roosters take dust baths or just hens?

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Yes my man but 10$ per bird times 90 bird is 900$ per year so add 5 roosters and that's 50$ extra money, business wize that is a loss. Unless you harvest the meat or use them for breeding, but if they are in a pen or coop as 5 roosters for no reason then it's a waste of money and space but again most people here are about the fun and love for chicken and they wouldn't care about 50$ per year

You are right. When it comes to money or time, it always boils down to priorities.

I don't find raising chickens to be all that lucrative. The best way I've found is to just buy chicks from ideal for about $1.50 shipped and sell them for $2.50-3.00 each. They sell fast and in that way I can get a nice return at a low cost. With the bantams I can do well growing them out for 8 weeks then selling girls for $8-10 each. My other money makers are my guineas. I can sell those within a day or two of hatch for $5 each.

ETA $50 a year boils down to a little over $4 a month, or less than 14 cents a day.

 

[KentuckyRooster]

Yea i forget that most of you are just chicken lovers, and see them as pets. Lol sorry my bad.
But diapers? :|

They live in the house- I won't have them pooping everywhere so that is the solution to that. They are being prepped for show as well and the less time they spend in poo the less staining I have to scrub out of their feathers. And outside they suffer a lot of breakage on their feather feet. Not so inside.

They are funny lil things, they do interact a lot and like to have bites of human food and hang out on the bed. They are good boys.

 

[PoultreeKing]

You are right. When it comes to money or time, it always boils down to priorities.

I don't find raising chickens to be all that lucrative. The best way I've found is to just buy chicks from ideal for about $1.50 shipped and sell them for $2.50-3.00 each. They sell fast and in that way I can get a nice return at a low cost. With the bantams I can do well growing them out for 8 weeks then selling girls for $8-10 each. My other money makers are my guineas. I can sell those within a day or two of hatch for $5 each.

Pricing is a little different in my country, and customers are not that common, i tried buying chicks and selling them and even growing them a little bit first, but business was slow so i am working on raising my own chicken, collecting their eggs and hatching their chicks, that way my profits are much much higher.