Roosters and breeding pens

[vicki2x2]

I am pretty new to breeding chickens and have been busy all summer building my flock, separate coops and runs, etc. I have read some people say they separate their breeds in the spring to sell hatching eggs or chicks, but run their chickens all together at other times. What do you do with the roosters when they are not with their hens? Do they run together too? Do you have bachelor quarters?

It sure would be easier for winter to not have to have so many separate pens to feed and haul water too and run electric for the heated waterers. Oh and buy so many heated waterers, they are pricey! We live in Michigan and heated waterers is a must. I have done without and it is a pain and in my opinion not good for the animals. There were many times when we were watering our bunnies 3 times a day and it would freeze within minutes. BRRRR!

 

[pipermark]

I let them all run together. You do need to be watchful to make sure that you dont introduce an overly aggressive rooster.

There will always be some chest banging and fighting, what you want to do is take out any rooster that once the other tries to run away or submit keeps attacking.

Since I am not raising breeds that call for aggressive roosters, I tend to cull these.

 

[vicki2x2]

Anyone else? Do you leave them in their separate pens or throw them all together?

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

It all depends on weather or not you plan on showing these roosters and hens. If so then they need to be kept separate (one to a cage). I do plan on keeping all seven of my roos separate...right now each roo has his "own" clan of girls and the D'uccles have a coop, the silkies have a coop, and the bantam cochins have a coop and the backyard flock have a coop with their roo and for now the Serama roo runs with them. Right now this is what works for me. But do what is easy for you. I LOVE doing the jobs that come with my chickens and if your not enjoying all the water/feeders then I would TRY to keep them together. But just be aware that roosters will fight and some roosters (the submissive ones) may be hurt pretty badly. I know this from experience (my Serama roo came very close to killing my D'uccle roo) Same age but the D'uccle was bigger but the Serama was more determined! And it's only natural for them so you can't blame them but you can give them separate quarters so they are safe

Good luck and let us know how this goes and what you decide.

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

OH and when I say coops I don't mean full fledged coops but cages big enough for them all to have at least 3 sq feet of room for each hen/roo. The cages are staying in the garage for the winter so I can control their heat lamps. The only big coop I have is an 8X8 insulated coop for the backyard flock which houses 18 (one of those being a roo) My Serama runs with them while they are free ranging but he has to stay in his own quarter in the garage at night or he is VERY mean to the big girls in the morning. Silly bird thinks he is THE boss! He is a doll though! Very pretty. I just added the last four to the coop (in a cage) which I will be adding in two weeks to my main flock. One of those four is another Roo (Golden Phoenix) so we will see how THAT works out. I may have to keep the Serama roo away till the Phoenix gets bigger.

 

[DaKid]

OH and when I say coops I don't mean full fledged coops but cages big enough for them all to have at least 3 sq feet of room for each hen/roo.

are you placeing a pr of standers size chickens in the size cage/pen or a pr of Bantams

Thanks Al.​

 

[NYREDS]

It gets cold in upstate NY too-I run everything together in on ebig pen in the winter [by everything I mean all the chickens, not the ducks & turkeys]. The males sort out the "pecking order" pretty quickly and rarely fight after that.

 

[aoutback]

old thread, but i'm new, and our first grp of 25 chicks(some bantams) appears to have quite a few roos. I'm in PA and will have all the chickens together in the barn w/ an outside run in winter. In good weather, I have a second option for a small group, a tractor on wheels, sitting inside a large mobile circular run, which will rotate weekly in my alpaca fields 1 week behind the alpaca rotation.

Wondering, since I'm not really breeding chickens, just wanting eggs, if I could put all the roos out there together in my tractor in summer. PLAN B

IF not my original plan (when of course I was only getting hens in my shipment) was to put all the bantams in my little tractor which will hold about 6 normal chickens. PLAN A

THanks,
Allie

 

[Haazegirl]

I'm fairly new to this too. But we got 30 straight run chicks last year, and everything I read says that the roos are happy by themselves. Get them around a few hens and they turn into neanderthals! We never really sorted ours out until the end for B-day (I'm not talking about their birth). But I think it would work great, we have a coop and a tractor as well. When our 2010 chicks are big enough we will be cleaning out the coop for them, and putting the old folks in the tractor until they are the same size. Don't keep too many roosters! We did this and it's awful. Butcher them before you have to make stew!