When to separate out cockerels

[HennyPenny44]

Like they say here, "Chicken math is real"! Chicken people around here live about 30-45 min drive from me. Plenty close enough to exchange breeding stock and eggs. I have a large old half acre lot in an old neighborhood in the city limits of Prescott, which is an old town and has pretty liberal rules for chickens. But according to those rules, roosters are not allowed. There are at least 3 roosters that I know of in my neighborhood, and only one of them is mine. There are even some horses. The noise complaints around here are most likely about loud stereos in cars and loud parties. Since they do not enforce against those noises, I keep my rooster!

It’s nice you live in a place where people recognize unjust laws and act accordingly. Most of Central NJ where I live has strict rules for chickens and no roosters allowed but drag racing and having loud music playing is ok apparently because it goes on all the time. My chickens aren’t loud except for the occasional egg song and my neighbors don’t seem to mind my chickens.

And my now 7 week old cockerels had a fight last night. This time, one was grabbing the other’s neck feathers and jumping on top of him. I don’t know if it’s getting too intense to keep them with the girls still. Even broody mama was trying to break the fight up and knock some sense into the youngsters. Sounds like what happens when my kids fight with each other.

 

[Raptor Mountain Farm]

I have 6 Black Australorp cockerels and that are 13 weeks old. They fight, crow, and bully the females and my Heritage breed chicks that are 11 weeks old. They all free range with my 2 hens that are 24 weeks old. Everyone runs from them as they are the bosses, with one being top hen.
When my first flock was about 14-16 weeks old (I would have to check my calendar to get exact age) I took out all my roosters. This was my "practice flock" so I would do better with my Heritage breeds and wasn't going to keep these guys for breeding. The Black Australorps came when I went to Tractor Supply for something and they had chicks for $1 each due to overcrowding. Chicken math hit me. LOL
I have a chicken plucker on order. It should arrive in about 2 weeks and I will start weeding out the cockerels from both flocks that I'm not keeping because scrawny, have traits I'm not looking for, or behavior.
My cockerels usually don't start crowing until about 6:30 am, luckily. I also can only see one neighbor's house, so I'm lucky. Hope this helps.

 

[Vicker]

Sometimes pullets square off and spar, making me think I have more cockerels than I do. It's usually the friendliest, most confident chick that turns out to be the rooster that I don't want.

 

[Parront]

It’s nice you live in a place where people recognize unjust laws and act accordingly. Most of Central NJ where I live has strict rules for chickens and no roosters allowed but drag racing and having loud music playing is ok apparently because it goes on all the time. My chickens aren’t loud except for the occasional egg song and my neighbors don’t seem to mind my chickens.

And my now 7 week old cockerels had a fight last night. This time, one was grabbing the other’s neck feathers and jumping on top of him. I don’t know if it’s getting too intense to keep them with the girls still. Even broody mama was trying to break the fight up and knock some sense into the youngsters. Sounds like what happens when my kids fight with each other.

It does not hurt to have a separate pen for those bad boys! Then they can only pick on each other while they get bigger.

I called the police for the noise from the neighbor across the street from me, he constantly blasts his music from his carport while he hangs out smoking and polishing his car. So when the cops showed up they talked to him and then came over to us and told us that his music wasn't so loud, and since it was blasting from a stereo and not his car they would not do anything.

Since then, cops have been to his house multiple times, and thanks be to heaven they are moving this weekend! He is a pretty unsavory character, we are pretty sure he was/is dealing something, he comes and goes several times a day, always blasting the music from his car so loud it would wake the dead. A rooster is a pleasant sound by comparison. (To me, anyway, a much nicer sound)!

 

[HennyPenny44]

I have 6 Black Australorp cockerels and that are 13 weeks old. They fight, crow, and bully the females and my Heritage breed chicks that are 11 weeks old. They all free range with my 2 hens that are 24 weeks old. Everyone runs from them as they are the bosses, with one being top hen.
When my first flock was about 14-16 weeks old (I would have to check my calendar to get exact age) I took out all my roosters. This was my "practice flock" so I would do better with my Heritage breeds and wasn't going to keep these guys for breeding. The Black Australorps came when I went to Tractor Supply for something and they had chicks for $1 each due to overcrowding. Chicken math hit me. LOL
I have a chicken plucker on order. It should arrive in about 2 weeks and I will start weeding out the cockerels from both flocks that I'm not keeping because scrawny, have traits I'm not looking for, or behavior.
My cockerels usually don't start crowing until about 6:30 am, luckily. I also can only see one neighbor's house, so I'm lucky. Hope this helps.

My broody who raised the chicks is actually a Black Australorp. She just abandoned her chicks this weekend and she’s as loud as any rooster early in the morning lately. I have to shush her. She’s top hen and everyone is now running from her, including her chicks. Australorps are beautiful birds but if they’re causing problems, they must be taken care of one way or another. So far, my boys are very sweet but they’re still only about 8 weeks old.

 

[HennyPenny44]

Sometimes pullets square off and spar, making me think I have more cockerels than I do. It's usually the friendliest, most confident chick that turns out to be the rooster that I don't want.

Yes, all my confirmed boys were first to eat from my hand and make eye contact. It makes it hard to get rid of them.

 

[HennyPenny44]

It does not hurt to have a separate pen for those bad boys! Then they can only pick on each other while they get bigger.

I called the police for the noise from the neighbor across the street from me, he constantly blasts his music from his carport while he hangs out smoking and polishing his car. So when the cops showed up they talked to him and then came over to us and told us that his music wasn't so loud, and since it was blasting from a stereo and not his car they would not do anything.

Since then, cops have been to his house multiple times, and thanks be to heaven they are moving this weekend! He is a pretty unsavory character, we are pretty sure he was/is dealing something, he comes and goes several times a day, always blasting the music from his car so loud it would wake the dead. A rooster is a pleasant sound by comparison. (To me, anyway, a much nicer sound)!

I see is a great motivator for you. Yes, I have my chicken tractor ready if things get out of hand. I would hate to have a neighbor like yours. I wish playing loud music was outlawed in places where roosters are but it isn’t.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yes, all my confirmed boys were first to eat from my hand and make eye contact. It makes it hard to get rid of them.

That's a really common trap. Pretty much from hatch most boys are braver and more curious than the girls. They are the ones that will come out to meet you while the girls are more likely to hang back. The boys ore the ones with personality so they are your favorites.

If you are picking out chicks from a feed store and you want pullets, don't pick the ones that are friendly and come out to meet you. Get the healthy ones that are hanging back. Some people know this and avoid the bold ones. This leaves more boys behind for others to get mostly boys.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I'm that "sausage" person @NatJ mentioned last page. Its a great use of old birds - almost 14 months old birds in the case os some I've processed. My recommend is that you use a seasoning recipe originally designed to compliment pork when working with ground chicken, and to use a beef sausage recipe for ground duck. Legg's "Snack Stick Seasoning" makes a very good commercial mix for making quite tasty hot dogs (recommend smoked collagen casings), but you have to keep in mind that chicken fat doesn't get hard like pork fat or beef fat, so if you have particularly fatty birds, those sausages won't get as firm as you are used to - and chunks of fat can render out while grilling, leaving voids which affect the texture (and encourage flare ups. I usually chill mine 24 hours to help dry and firm them up, smoke for flavor, finish in the oven to ensure I've hit temp, then store in the chill chest till needed. A longer hanging rest would likely be beneficial, but I'm impatient.

 

[cmom]

Everyone is different with different situations. I hatch out a lot of chicks every year of which around half will be males. I do raise my birds to show at poultry shows. In the past we have processed the extra males but now I sell them. I keep the best as future breeders. We have a local farm swap with plenty of buyers so I have no problem with selling my extra males. I do grow them out and when they start bothering the females I separate them and put them into bachelor coops and pens but I do have several coops. They are fine as long as there are no females. Now if I want a bird to eat we have a butcher down the road and I buy an already processed bird there. I can get more from my birds when I sell them which helps to offset the cost of feed but I also go through a lot of feed. I don't have the usual backyard flock. Currently with the chicks I average around 400/500 birds. I recently sold a bunch of birds. Good luck...
Some of my Rhode Island Reds.