Rooster spacing, flock division

[NHMountainMan]

It looks like I've for a couple of cockerels. And of course, I'm loving raising chickens. So - I'm planning on dividing the flock with space between them.
Right now, my flock is only only ranging within electric netting, but I plan on letting them free range soon.
If I move one rooster to another coop and allow them all to free range, do I need a lot of space between them to prevent rooster problems? If so, how far?

 

[centrarchid]

I do maintain multiple free-ranging flocks over what is currently about 4 acres. Usually about six acres involved, but this year reduced production of young allowed leaving remainder unused by chickens. As of now three discrete flocks although 6 flocks fairly easy. I routinely manage plant community as found cover patches and forage patches can increase odds birds will more effectively use landscape with less discord. Impacts of those patches makes hard and fast rules difficult to come up with for me. The chickens I have appear capable of three social arrangements when comes to roosters. Sex ratio of all three can approach 1:1.

The first arrangement has several roosters and usually a larger number of hens having more or less overlapping home ranges where the entire group moves about together as a loose social unit. This arrangement seems to work when group size is larger and there is very little structure in the plant community (few cover patches). Roosters have a linear hierarchy and compete with each other over mating rights. Some of the competition involves who can mate the hens the most and can be hard on the hens. Roosters provide alarm calls but do not do a much for hens beyond occasional tid-biting that is more often than not a prelude to mating.

The second arrangement is with smaller numbers of birds on a more complex landscape. Social groupings form where a dominant rooster and sometimes satellite(s) (males that are adult and associate with group, but of lower status and usually operate as periphery of a given social group). Satellites mate with hens, but not as often. With this you can have social groups with overlapping home ranges, but two or more groups generally do not occur in same location at same time. Exception to this can be when feeding in a single area that all groups converge on. Discord can be expected with such interactions. Roosting in this arrangement can have have roosters and their respective families / harems / tribes sometimes within a few feet of each other, but usually no overlap on roost. Roosters invest more in hens and forming associations that persist through the day. Hens going broody stop interacting with respective group they are from. Roosters tidbit but very often without mating occurring shortly after. It appears to me that the families need to avoid site of each most of the time, otherwise conflicts will be too frequent and the first arrangement will prevail.

Third arrangement has social groupings where home ranges have little or no overlap. The home ranges are effectively territories where one social group will exclude other social groups. The defense from a distance appears to be mostly rooster actions but hens and even young birds can get involved. I have had 6 week old chicks successfully attack much older juveniles and young adults during confrontations. Satellites can be associated with this arrangement as well. Roosters like in arrangement above and also invest in chicks by helping them find eats and acting in their defense. Broody hens maintain relationship with respective social group and bring chicks into it within a few days of hatch. Integration of young smoothest with this arrangement. This arrangement involves the lowest density of birds and where feeding method does not promote groups coming together too often. When targeting this arrangement I like to load feeders, if they are be fed as all, early in morning before chickens come of the roost.

I assume the OP desires either the second or third type of arrangement. What does seem to work consistently is to have roost sites that are at least 50 yards apart. Again, closer can work, but not as reliably. Each social group then gets multiple cover patches and a well separated feeding station. You can get away with one waterer but it needs to be in a more or less neutral location.

There is a seasonal aspect to this whole mess. Once the heavy molt commences and chicks are no longer dependent on mommy, the social groupings become more fluid. Social groups "solidify" again once breeding season commence which for here is a month or two after winter solstice. It is at that time I have to watch for major battles between roosters that can require my intervention. Once social groupings are worked out, things work pretty good for balance of production season unless a couple satellites get into it over succession when a dominant rooster is drops out for some reason.

Setting up groups is made easier by confining them separately for a time. Watch for discord when they first come together upon release. Do not do this with fighting chickens unless a lot of land involved and you have a back up plan for isolating combatants.

 

[NHMountainMan]

Thanks for all of the feedback. I think my biggest take away is that you never know with a cockerel / Roo and I should be prepared to adjust my plan on the fly as needed.
We have no little ones around yet though we are putting as much pressure as we can on the kids to give us some grandbabies! I would immediately cull a roo for any human aggression.
We have no nearby neighbors and our property would probably best be described as maybe a wilderness homestead. We have several cleared acres carved out in the woods abutting thousands of acres of forest. We're slowly and carefully clearing area for gardens, honeybees & chickens so far. My goal is ultimately to control our own food supply. As a recent cancer survivor, I just want to eat clean food that we've raised.
I started the chicks thinking I'd be ordering chicks every so often to fill the freezer and provide eggs. But I'm enjoying them way more than I expected. In the future, I may want a rooster to fertilize and we'd rear our own. But in the short term I find myself with 13 pullets from my first batch (20 weeks) and 3 pullets and 2 cockerel I inherited from my brother in law. They are 8 weeks old. We're will be sending some of originals to the freezer in a few weeks.
The cockerel are an EE & a SLW.
I do have the room to keep them some distance apart. I have a full coop /run in a 1/2 acre bee yard, surrounded by electric netting. I'm thinking of putting a second coop and run in the garden /orchard area, which also has an electric net set up.

The second set up will be about 1 1/2 acres from the first.

Given that - I'm thinking I'll keep the first group all pullets (13 will be culled to 8) by winter. The second group will be the 3 pullets and 2 cockerel. But I'll need to watch them as they mature. Cull as needed, or move one rooster in with the first group, and watch carefully.

Does that sound like a plan that is workable?

 

[cmom]

I have had more than one male in with females and no problems and other times the males wanted to kill each other. Good luck with what ever you do and have a plan B just in case. There are two males here and everything was good. Now I have one male in most of the pens. I have some grow-out pens with several males in them but soon they will be put in bachelor coops and pens.

 

[Headhen3]

Right now I have 6 roosters and not by choice, the batch of chicks I started this spring was supposed to be all female but so how I have a lilac or lavender rooster. Only 16 weeks old but I’m pretty sure it’s a roo. I have over 100 birds so all the guys have their own flocks. I think the multigenerational thing makes a lot of drfference. The hierarchy changes but I don’t see any damage from fighting so I’m just going with the flow. I have 20 acres and everyone is free to range all day. I do start to do a lockdown in late fall because that’s when the local pack of coyotes seem to be in my area. Right now I think Mick Jagger the white leghorn is top bird.

 

[Mrs. K]

I will say, that the longer you are in chickens and the more muti-generational your flock becomes, the better roosters you get. I tend to get good roosters when they are raised up under older birds.

So my advice - go ahead and eat these boys if they don't work out. Next spring, look around, ask at the poultry club, the feed store, the county extension agent for some other crazy chicken people. Generally they will have a young rooster that was too nice, and did not get culled. That is the rooster you want, if he is close to a year old, even better.

This rooster has been raised in a true chicken society, he has not been allowed to be a bully, the older birds thumped that out of him. He has learned that he needs to romance the girls, and that he needs to take care of them.

He will be a wonderful addition to your flock, and by then you will have a bit more experience.

Mrs K

 

[Mrs. K]

slippednfell - I would not rush this. To me, this takes experience, that you really can't get from reading. Experience with chicks does not equal experience with either cockerels or roosters. (I am assuming that you are just starting out, and only have the chicks).

My advice is to work into this, say over 5 years. A hen only flock the first year, or a flock of pullets and a flock of cockerels that are separate. Harvest the cockerels. Raise up straight run chicks the following year, in the established hen flock. Pulling cockerels that don't fit in the flock to the rooster quarters. Eventually getting a good rooster - it will take a year or more to become a flock master, now you have experience, and they have a true chicken society of multi-generations.

At this point, your older rooster is going to have an effect on your younger roosters. And at this point there will be some natural separation of the flock, and at this point you could really move into the situations of Shadrach and Centrachid.

It does take time, experience and space. And there will be a lot of roosters that will not fit into this long term plan.

Mrs K

 

[Folly's place]

Try having them all together, and be ready with Plan B at a moment's notice!
Things might be fine, and they might not. If either, or both, develop any human aggression issues, that's a cull point. If anyone is causing injuries to any pullets, also not good. Having cockerels and pullets all the same age is harder, because there aren't any adults to manage them.
Having one flock, and only separating breeding groups when purebred eggs are wanted for hatching, is easier, especially with a new flock.
Mary

 

[aart]

I find using the search function on BYC doesn't always provide the most accurate links.

No, it doesn't.
Googling is almost better, will still bring you here 8 times out of 10.

Using the advanced search can help,
but still gotta play with the syntax and other setting.

 

[Mrs. K]

I seldom disagree with Ridgerunner, a very knowledgeable chicken raiser. So much so, that I hesitate to point out where we digress. So take this if you want, and if you don't and agree with Ridgerunner, you are probably right.

I do think that there are two areas of note in adding a mature rooster to a an established laying flock (which is off the point of the op).

• To improve genetics quickly of new offspring, putting in a rooster that is high in the traits you would like to add to your flock, quickly does that. Over time of ongoing in- house breeding, poor traits seem to concentrate, and better traits seem to fade away.
• A mature rooster will become a flock master much quicker than chicks being hatched and raised up. In Ridgerunner's case having an established flock for years, and always having roosters of various ages, to replace a flock master rooster is really a non-issue. But in the beginning, not always do you have that wide choice.

However, the bio-security is a valid issue.

Mrs K