When to separate pullets from cockerels?

[sparkles2307]

I dont want out roo chicks to kill each other...they are 5 weeks old right now, how soon should I pull the girls? I have noticed that the fighting is getting a little more serious than flapping at each other...and I dont want a bunch of cut up roos! When to separate and how far away to move them is my query?

edited for spelling...

 

[RendonRoo]

Sounds like you have too many roos. Are you gonna keep them? If they are for meat i would seperate them if you can. If your gonna keep them you should only have about 1 roo for ever 6-8 hens. Hope this helps.

 

[sparkles2307]

We got the 100 roo package from cackle for meat. They arent meat breeds just leftovers from the egg breeds. So I should build another pen now then? LOL DH is gonna kick my butt! He'll never be thru building coops!

 

[Shay1327]

I have a seperate "bachelors pad" (small coop and run seperate from my big coop and run). I use all my extra roos for meat when they are bigger so I seperate the boys from girls as soon as I'm sure what sex they are and I move them out of the brooder. The boys do fine together when they are young because they don't have that rush of testosterone yet and no girls to fight over. I may keep one of the roos to replace my current rooster whose not as vigorous as he used to be so this will give me a way to test out their personalities before making the cut, so to speak.

Good luck!

 

[RendonRoo]

Why did you get so many roos if not for meat? Just wondering.

 

[sparkles2307]

Uh they are for meat. I stated that "we got the 100 roo package from cackle for meat. they arent meat birds (indicating breed) but are the leftovers from egg breeds"

We arent keeping them. But beings that they arent MEAT BREED they will take longer to finish for butchering so I have to have housing that will last till like, September.

 

[RendonRoo]

OK that makes sense. I put my peanuts in the freezer at 4 mts. old. They were a bit small but i couldn't build another structure to house them and they were beating my "keepers" up. They do taste good though. Good Luck

 

[sparkles2307]

We have a "garden shed" (think tin siding on a 12x16 building that could easily house a car for the winter) that was originally supposed to become the coop. THen, for the sake of convenience, we decided to "coop" a section of the old granary/corn crib that I have already taken over for my goats and ducks. So, I still have this garden shed that could be converted with about 3 days of work...its in need of some TLC...DH was a very maintenance oriented bachelor for 8 years...

SO do I try to tell him that 80 crowing roos 30 ft behind our bedroom window wont be so bad and convert the shed or do I "coop" more of my goat barn? Either way its gonna be a lot of work as the rest of my goat barn currently houses the worthless bum relatives' crap (windows, pieces of foam insulation with sheetrock attached, siding...) that they will NEVER come for and will take an army to remove...the things I am willing to make DH do for my chickens!

 

[MissouriChick]

I'm curious about this too. How can you separate when you aren't sure who all is definitely a rooster? We have some "fighting" but its not really rough...yet. If I don't have meat breeds that get big quickly, but still plan on eating some of them, like sparkles2307 does, do I absolutely have to separate them? By what age are they just not able to stay with the pullets.
We have 50 chickens, 12 or so which are supposed to roosters.

 

[sparkles2307]

DH is adamant that we will not kill a pullet so i have to do a good job knowing who is who...he wants eggs and he wants them NOW...