*Roosters ONLY!* (Rooster Management)

[Amos-Moses]

What part of Alabama are you in?

I am in central Alabama, about 30 minutes south of Birmingham.

 

[AudieWarren]

I am in central Alabama, about 30 minutes south of Birmingham.

My brother in law is in Huntsville. If you absolutely want to get rid of your roosters, I can get you his contact info. His birds free range.

 

[Shadrach]

@varidgerunner
I would like to learn something.
On the farm I spent most of my youth on in the UK they kept Cornish Game.
If my memory serves me they had eight pairs. These pairs were kept in separate runs. I was told they fight if kept together.
What happens when they breed and produce male offspring?
Does the male just have one hen?
If not, what happens to any pullets?

 

[varidgerunner]

@varidgerunner
I would like to learn something.
On the farm I spent most of my youth on in the UK they kept Cornish Game.
If my memory serves me they had eight pairs. These pairs were kept in separate runs. I was told they fight if kept together.
What happens when they breed and produce male offspring?
Does the male just have one hen?
If not, what happens to any pullets?

Cornish Game of today are not true gamefowl. They still have many attributes of the asil that is in them. Pure Asil are kept in pairs. Most males will tolerate chicks.
They will tolerate them until the stags begin to turn red about the comb, then they will drive them away or kill them. It depends on if there is an "away" to drive them to. If you take the cock out the hen will tolerate the youngsters, and keep the peace among the stags, until she begins to lay again. If free ranged with plenty of space, she will have a nest somewhere and as they come to hang around her, she will gently make it known that they aren't buddies anymore. If confined she may be less gentle. If left with the pullets, the cock might keep the peace until the hen is setting again, but when she hatches it won't be pretty.

The pullets will be bosom companions, until they are separated or until they have broods of their own. All memory of each other will cease in either event. Under threat of a brood cock, even on a cord, the stags will get along for longer than if there is no boss around. Off in a bachelor group, quietly sparring and leaving hens alone, as an asil hen could quickly kill them for unwarranted advances, and being careful not to get Dad involved in any dispute. If left to their own devices their sisters would live nearby, afraid to associate with cranky hens, but close enough to the boss to keep their brothers at bay.

In the original posters situation a big Thai rooster would have all of those cockerels living down in the rooster shed and giving his ladies a wide berth. An asil hen might teach them some manners as well, if they are prone to learning. My spare roosters usually live over in the woods, even egg laying breeds. There are enough game hens loose that they just hang out and look for berries and seeds and don't think about females because the last one broke more than their heart. And the coming of age stag that is usually my disposable flock protector/eye candy/spare hen settler/yard bird daddy keeps them driven out of the preferred feeding areas, the smart ones anyway. I chuck some scratch feed their direction when I think of it.

To answer your question the male has just one hen because two hens would try to kill each other, eventually. I don't really see this as being a problem with the Cornish of today. It is more of an asil trait. The male Asil will breed more than one hen, but left to his own devices most will have a favorite that he allows to roost with him, to the exclusion of most others. He will tolerate the pullets as long as his hen tolerates them. He will tolerate stags for less time, maybe not past six weeks. When mom is with chicks, she is less tolerant of the cock, and he will likely develop a new roosting partner, but when brooding season is over, his favorite will resume her position of rank, and he might get quite nasty with hens that were allowed to perch with him for a time.

Bankivoid game hens will get testy when with chick, but come winter you can throw them all in the same coop with no more squabbles than leghorn hens. Once seperated, you can never put two asil hens together in an enclosure.

 

[Chelsa'sChicks]

I have heard that if roosters are kept away from hens, then they will have less to compete for and thus are less likely to fight. I've been told that some rooster-only flocks can be quite civil. What is your opinion on this, am I being naive?

If everything goes as planned, the roosters would only be cooped up at night, with free-range of the back side of my property from dawn to dusk. Also, they would be harvested by 6 months of age.

Do you think that they would still end up battle-royaling on a regular basis under these circumstances?

I have read that it is possible to keep multiple roosters together with the exception of game birds. From my research because I have thought about keeping my extra roosters also... As long as they are NOT with hens they should 99% be fine and not fight. There will be that 1 rooster every once in a while that will not accept or tolerate this environment of all the roos and that one will need to be removed. I would alternate the free range flock you have and just the roo flock if you are letting them free range still. This information is from rooster sanctuaries/rescues and from people who just couldn't eat the extra roos or had another use for them as a extra roo when their free range rooster passes. I 100% think this is awesome!

 

[mandelyn]

When I was growing up I had some game birds, before I knew anything about game birds. My dad started up a chainsaw and the hens shot 40 feet up into the trees from a standstill! An uncle raised them in Tennessee, they were the only breed that survived free ranging on the side of his mountain. Totally a different kind of bird than that average chicken! Their instincts run deep.

I've always liked the look of them, so I started up a flock of Twentse, which sort of has the look, doesn't require dubbing since they have a Walnut type comb and they get a little wider in the body than a game bird. They also aren't so driven in their instincts. The rooster is the best I have, in terms of roostering skills.

They're getting phased out though. It takes way too long for them to gain that width and fill out compared to my other breeds. Love them, but I gotta stay focused and not let shiny feathers distract me! He has 3 favorite hens, out of a group of 9 that he has well in hand.

I am keeping on with a project I started off of them though...

They're auto-sexing and I'm patiently waiting to see if they'll lay blue eggs. A percentage of them should. Then we'll see what the F2's do and so on. I have another outcross in mind but it'll throw the coloration out of whack and potentially mess up the auto sexing but would improve the growth rate and widen out the body a little more.

I also have a mash-up flock of different types of Olive Eggers with one MASSIVE rooster. I haven't settled on a type yet so we're in the fun stage of seeing what they throw. The rooster has proven himself to be alert and vigilant, good manners and sweet to the girls, even at the hormonal idiot age he's at right now. He's never looked at me crooked either. I'm really liking his barred over black feathers.

We have grass in most of the runs thanks to a rotation we've started doing, letting some runs sit empty to regrow and keeping the birds per pen low. Mature birds get moved to a stall with good grass, babies move to a stall with a dirt run and the door to the run kept closed while the grass grows.

We're working on a new bachelor coop, it'll have space for about 25 inside with free range into the pet pig pasture (tiny pigs). It's located farther away from the girls too, though not totally out of sight. Better than directly next door, though we've not had many cockerels getting out of line with girls in sight.

 

[Shadrach]

Cornish Game of today are not true gamefowl. They still have many attributes of the asil that is in them. Pure Asil are kept in pairs. Most males will tolerate chicks.
They will tolerate them until the stags begin to turn red about the comb, then they will drive them away or kill them. It depends on if there is an "away" to drive them to. If you take the cock out the hen will tolerate the youngsters, and keep the peace among the stags, until she begins to lay again. If free ranged with plenty of space, she will have a nest somewhere and as they come to hang around her, she will gently make it known that they aren't buddies anymore. If confined she may be less gentle. If left with the pullets, the cock might keep the peace until the hen is setting again, but when she hatches it won't be pretty.

The pullets will be bosom companions, until they are separated or until they have broods of their own. All memory of each other will cease in either event. Under threat of a brood cock, even on a cord, the stags will get along for longer than if there is no boss around. Off in a bachelor group, quietly sparring and leaving hens alone, as an asil hen could quickly kill them for unwarranted advances, and being careful not to get Dad involved in any dispute. If left to their own devices their sisters would live nearby, afraid to associate with cranky hens, but close enough to the boss to keep their brothers at bay.

In the original posters situation a big Thai rooster would have all of those cockerels living down in the rooster shed and giving his ladies a wide berth. An asil hen might teach them some manners as well, if they are prone to learning. My spare roosters usually live over in the woods, even egg laying breeds. There are enough game hens loose that they just hang out and look for berries and seeds and don't think about females because the last one broke more than their heart. And the coming of age stag that is usually my disposable flock protector/eye candy/spare hen settler/yard bird daddy keeps them driven out of the preferred feeding areas, the smart ones anyway. I chuck some scratch feed their direction when I think of it.

To answer your question the male has just one hen because two hens would try to kill each other, eventually. I don't really see this as being a problem with the Cornish of today. It is more of an asil trait. The male Asil will breed more than one hen, but left to his own devices most will have a favorite that he allows to roost with him, to the exclusion of most others. He will tolerate the pullets as long as his hen tolerates them. He will tolerate stags for less time, maybe not past six weeks. When mom is with chicks, she is less tolerant of the cock, and he will likely develop a new roosting partner, but when brooding season is over, his favorite will resume her position of rank, and he might get quite nasty with hens that were allowed to perch with him for a time.

Bankivoid game hens will get testy when with chick, but come winter you can throw them all in the same coop with no more squabbles than leghorn hens. Once seperated, you can never put two asil hens together in an enclosure.

Thank you for taking the time to reply at such depth.

 

[roosterhavoc]

I have read that it is possible to keep multiple roosters together with the exception of game birds. From my research because I have thought about keeping my extra roosters also... As long as they are NOT with hens they should 99% be fine and not fight. There will be that 1 rooster every once in a while that will not accept or tolerate this environment of all the roos and that one will need to be removed. I would alternate the free range flock you have and just the roo flock if you are letting them free range still. This information is from rooster sanctuaries/rescues and from people who just couldn't eat the extra roos or had another use for them as a extra roo when their free range rooster passes. I 100% think this is awesome!

Roosters kept together may not fight but they still have hormones. Eventually the weakest of the bunch will become the hen. It’s already been said a few times previously. I’ve done it, seen it and stopped it. Rooster sanctuaries may not be the best source of information.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Roosters kept together may not fight but they still have hormones. Eventually the weakest of the bunch will become the hen. It’s already been said a few times previously. I’ve done it, seen it and stopped it. Rooster sanctuaries may not be the best source of information.

Ehhh... yes and no. I have also seen it, but most my boys do not behave in that manner. I've even seen them take turn mating each other. Sometimes I think they are just getting a taste of their own medicine! But I will (have) cull(ed) for it. Only those with acceptable behavior are welcome to stay in my stag pen.

Yes, fights break out! disagreements happen even in the absence of hens. I mean come on... they've been facing off since they were a few weeks old or younger in some cases. Some can still live together after a fight. EACH situation WILL be unique!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

We're working on a new bachelor coop, it'll have space for about 25

How much space is that?