When should I separate my roosters?

[Three Little Bunnies]

Hi!

When should I separate my two eight-week-old cockerels from my two same-age pullets? I was planning to put one cockerel with my thirteen big hens, but realized he might get picked on by himself. Another option is to put all four eight-week-olds with the big chickens. I can also put one cockerel and one pullet in a separate coop from the other cockerel and pullet. What should I do?

 

[MountainWoman73]

Why are you wanting to separate them?

 

[Three Little Bunnies]

Why are you wanting to separate them?

So they don't fight over the girls. I don't necessarily mean separate the boys from each other, but separate the boys from the girls.

 

[MountainWoman73]

The pullets won't really be interesting to the cockerels until they reach point of lay, so you have another 3 months before there will be any problems. You said you have 13 other hens. 15 to 2 is pretty good female to male ratio. Of course, they might fight anyway, but I'd wait and see. Two roosters can sometimes coexist peacefully. And if there is a problem, it makes more sense to get rid of the aggressive rooster than to keep him separated.

 

[Three Little Bunnies]

The pullets won't really be interesting to the cockerels until they reach point of lay, so you have another 3 months before there will be any problems. You said you have 13 other hens. 15 to 2 is pretty good female to male ratio. Of course, they might fight anyway, but I'd wait and see. Two roosters can sometimes coexist peacefully. And if there is a problem, it makes more sense to get rid of the aggressive rooster than to keep him separated.

Okay, thanks! I think one cockerel is a lot more dominant than the other, so hopefully they won't have any problems.