roosters, housing and more than one breed

[anniemary]

Hi,

I am thinking about having a few chicken tractors which move aournd our 2 acre yard or 15 acre pasture. I'd also like the hens to be able to free range outside of the tractors. I hate roosters but understand their benefits, especially with hawks in the area. I'd also like to hatch my own eggs.

question:

Is it posslble to let only the hens outside of the tractor during the day and keep the roos inside the tractor run? I want to do this for a couple reasons:
1. I want to have a variety of birds but don't want to cross-breed
2. My last experience with a rooster was terrifying. EVERYONE was afraid of him except my husband. And now, we have a 2 yr old grandson and I don't want roosters attacking him.

Do you think the hens would still benefit from the rooster's warnings even though the rooster is in the tractor run?

I thought of doing poultry netting around the 2 acres, but again, I don't want to cross-breed. Plus, we have dogs that would like to freely run through our yard.

Thoughts?

 

[BGMatt]

Alternate days for free ranging by breed maybe? I have always done that with my breeding pens sharing a communal run, just alternate days.

As far as mean males, when you buy your birds from breeder make sure to ask about the males temperament. Cock birds that are aggressive to humans belong in the oven. There is no reason to tolerate a mean one, and actually they're usually the most sociable and enjoyable of my birds, being far less shy than the hens.

Your cock birds will not be able to protect their flock unless they are with the flock.

 

[DanEP]

X2 on the oven. I do not keep mean rooster for any reason. I have a lot of kids running around and can't take the chance .I have 4 roosters right now that are well bred and not at all human aggressive. Now that being said I also don't let the kids mess with the roosters either, or the girls. I will let the kids feed treats to the chickens but only with supervision.Actually my most protective roosters are the bantam cochins. I had one take on 2 full grown ee's that somebody dropped off in my yard one day and he chased them off.This same rooster will eat from a 3 year olds hand and follows me around begging for something to feed the girls.
I also have a mixed flock and only breed the as pure breeds even tho they all range together I just pen up the rooster and the girls I want chicks from when I want to hatch eggs. I just lock them down and wait at least 3 weeks before collecting eggs.

 

[donrae]

I'd say free range everyone together. Have a separate breeding pen. When you're ready to incubate eggs, separate the roo and hens you want in the breeding pen. Wait 2 weeks for the other roosters sperm to clear out of the hen, then start collecting eggs. This just sounds so much easier to me. How often are you really going to be hatching eggs? Maybe a couple times a year, usually. Keeping the roosters in the tractor, NO hens would get mated. And how frustrating for your poor roosters!

You're not really going to be able to manage more than 2-3 separate breeds, unless you have lots of separate pens. If you want more breeds than that I think you'd be better off just to order day old sexed pullets. And what are you going to do with the 50% roosters you do hatch out? Do you plan to butcher them? It's always good to have a plan in place before you hatch lol.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

X2 on the oven. I do not keep mean rooster for any reason. I have a lot of kids running around and can't take the chance .I have 4 roosters right now that are well bred and not at all human aggressive. Now that being said I also don't let the kids mess with the roosters either, or the girls. I will let the kids feed treats to the chickens but only with supervision.Actually my most protective roosters are the bantam cochins. I had one take on 2 full grown ee's that somebody dropped off in my yard one day and he chased them off.This same rooster will eat from a 3 year olds hand and follows me around begging for something to feed the girls.
I also have a mixed flock and only breed the as pure breeds even tho they all range together I just pen up the rooster and the girls I want chicks from when I want to hatch eggs. I just lock them down and wait at least 3 weeks before collecting eggs.

X3 on all this. Including supervising children with chickens.

I have three different breeds of roosters, and do as DanEP does, penning up the rooster and hens I want together for three weeks.

I think that if you look at it as if, instead of not liking ALL roosters, you didn't like THAT SPECIFIC rooster, you might feel better about things. We have three roosters and young children. None of our roosters is human-aggressive, including a hatchery RIR, which have bad reputations. We simply do not tolerate aggressive animals. We have a two strikes policy--the first time a rooster acts aggressively--and I don't mean flogging here, I mean looks at me aggressively and holds his head low and fluffs up his neck feathers and moves towards me--he gets chased around the yard and squawked at and caught and held down and carried around. The second time he acts aggressively, well, he loses his head by sunset.

Our current roosters move away from us if we walk towards them, but are not panicked by our presence. That's about perfect, in my book. They run up looking for treats, but don't want to be touched. Dont' try to make a pet of a rooster. Hold yourself aloof and remember that you are the alpha rooster in every flock.

To start, though, why not just not keep a rooster? Your chicken tractor idea sounds like a ton of work for not much gain. They won't do you that much good if they're penned up. And a hen will take over the rooster's position in the flock, and will watch for hawks. You can find a rooster pretty easily when you are comfortable with your hens and decide you want fertile eggs. Just look in the Buy Sell Trade section here at BYC. Two of my roosters are purebred, breeder stock and came from a wonderful BYCer. I was prepared to pay for them, but she gave them to me for free. You can tell the BYCer that temperament is of paramount importance for you. If you do decide to breed your own birds, remember that aggressiveness towards humans is an inherited trait and never, ever breed from a nasty rooster.

Good luck!

 

[missnu01]

I plan on putting all my chickens together in a coop and they will all free range together. When I want to hatch eggs I will pen up the rooster and hens I want and then get their eggs, much like everyone else has said. Some people build a coop and small run for each breed, but I don't like that as much. For one, it's a lot of building...2, that leaves some chickens free to be chickens, while others are stuck in pens all the time. Seems unfair.