[suziequeue]

We have realised that we need to be a bit more organised about our hens and cockerels and start having breeding groups to produce nice pure bred and some hybrid chickens. At the moment we have:

Cuckoo Marans
Cream Legbar
Welsummer
Rhode Island Red
Copper Black Marans
Speckledys.

I plan to add in some Exchequer Leghorns and am quite interested in the Norfolk Grey aswell (they are FANTASTIC grass eaters apparently which would be great for us)

I want to carry on breeding laying hens that lay different coloured eggs. My ultimate ambition is to produce a "rainbow" egg box. I plan to put the Welsummer over the Cream Legbars next year and hopefully get a few olive egg layers.

Anyway - dreaming aside - what will I do with the cockerels in the winter once the breeding season is over?

I would want the laying hens that aren't specifically breeding to be free ranging.

I don't really want to keep the cockerels in cages - but rather have a large paddock with a roost hut to go in at night. I expect that I will end up with about six or seven cockerels of different breeds and probably a few more circulating through.

I have an idea that the cockerels could all live together in a bachelor frat-house and then I just take out the ones I need to run with the penned breeding hens at certain times.

Is this feasible? Can cockerels go in and out of the frat-house? or does this upset the pecking order?

What do other people do?

[hughesy]

Recipe for disaster if you ask me. Cockerels that have been brought up together seem to get on ok but putting numerous male birds together will surely end in blood, feathers and dead cockerels.

[lord flynn]

I think a lot depends on the breed and of course the individual. I know of people who do keep bachelor pens over the winter and the birds need enough space obviously and be well away from any girls. There may well be fighting every time you take them in or out.


I did try it without success and all of them were reared together. Although it may be that I was just a bit too worried by the blood but also at that point, the different pens were in the same field although they were 200ft apart.


I suppose you just have to try it-and be prepared to step in-its not pleasant when they go at each other, especially when old enough to have spurs.

[in the hills]

We bought a cockerel from the Wernlas Poultry Collection. Their cockerels that were for sale all lived together in a large enclosure with coop  in the middle. One would presume that as birds were sold they would then stock back up with new young males. Guessing they had skirmishes to re-establish the pecking order but must have generally got on okay. The pen was well away from hens though.

In Winter our cockerels all get on and there are no fights. They free range and there are skirmishes in spring .... nothing serious yet. We have sometimes kept a cockerel in a pen with his girls during spring. This was in sight of the other free ranging cockerels and once released to join the others there have been no fights. Other cockerels must remember and accept that the cockerel is once again free and is one of their own. Neighbour does similar when she wants to breed true and has never spoken of any problems. Ours know each other and have grown up together as do neighbours, think it would be different if the cockerels were new to each other. Then guessing there would be big trouble!!!!!

HTH  ... cross posted with LF

[shygirl]

wev actually never had a problem with fighting cockerals. we have kept a couple mature ones together with hens and young cockerals.
if it was me, id have breeding pens of hens and a cockeral all year round. separate for each breed.
btw if you are wanting olive coloured eggs, we achieved this with sussex hens x araucana cockeral. the fluffy hens produced khaki/olive coloured eggs.

[Marches Farmer]

We keep the best two cockerels of each breed penned separately over the Winter.  We don't run them with hens unless we want fertile eggs.  Musn't sell fertile eggs from the farmgate.  Once they start fighting they don't stop - I've seen a young cockerel that grew up with his pen mates have his rear end, comb and wattles reduced to a bloody mess in the ten minutes between me topping up the drinker and walking back past the pen.  Not fun!

[Steph Hen]

Mostly they get on fine, but I also have one total wimp and one mean fighter who has a go at everyone  even much bigger birds who gang up to put him down resulting in blood. The others are fine in together. The wimp I discovered spends his whole day running to furthest corner of wherever and stops eating, even if other cocks ignore him.

[jaykay]

I let everyone run together free-range, for most of the year. They have plenty of space and several houses to choose from.

When I want breeding pens, I pen the girls for three weeks, leaving the cockerels loose and free-range. Once the three weeks is up, I catch the appropriate cocks, put them in with their girls for a few hours once a week, and then turf them back out with their mates.

This has the advantage:
1. They get on with the job when they're in with the girls, instead of being penned all the time with them and getting bored
2. They maintain the cockerel pecking order, which minimises fights

[lord flynn]

jaykay/in the hills-thats really interesting. how many do you have, how many girls are the running with? When I had two males out with my hens, the hens were harried by both of them and seemed quite confused as to who to follow. It would make my life much easier to not have lots of runs over the winter so would like it to work. Maybe the clue is in more than one house-when I opened up the coop on Christmas Day it was like a scene from Dexter-blood spatters all over the inside albeit from a small wound on the comb (the youngster was broody hatched and been with the flock since very young). I could have two houses this year but its not a huge area (1/3 acre) but was also going to cull out some older hens as well. (sorry for the hijack op)

[AndynJ]

Musn't sell fertile eggs from the farmgate. 

Sorry why not ? I have always understood fertile eggs taste better

My cockerels are gods I can replace a hen easy I cant replace a good cockerel, anyways my legbars pen up together summer & winter except 8 days a month from spring as they are on duty

Other cockerels go in miniature runs next to the hens

I do something else with my cockerels though I will wait for Marches reply before I tell all 

[lord flynn]

Musn't sell fertile eggs from the farmgate. 

Sorry why not ? I have always understood fertile eggs taste better

My cockerels are gods I can replace a hen easy I cant replace a good cockerel, anyways my legbars pen up together summer & winter except 8 days a month from spring as they are on duty

Other cockerels go in miniature runs next to the hens

I do something else with my cockerels though I will wait for Marches reply before I tell all 

its fine to sell fertile eggs afaik.

[in the hills]

Lord Flynn, just did a quick count. We have 6 cockerels    . Would have to do a head count of hens. We only have on BIG cockerel. A utility RIR. The others are 4 pekins and 1 strange pekin x araucana. No-one dares fight Peter the RIR. He keeps order. The pekins have a few skirmishes in Spring but nothing more. Like Jaykay, we have several coops available and think this helps.Example of their antics. Some of ours have 'moved out' after a falling out. Two pekin brothers, living together, had a skirmish. One moved out and moved in with another cockerel and his hens. Fine. Few days later his brother moved out too. So 3 cockerels living together in one coop and leaving the hens in the other coop without a cockerel!

Ours have mainly been hatched here but one of the cockerels came as a nearly mature bird and he has been fine. Daughter loves pekins and hence we have so many pekin cockerels in different colours. 

The cockerels don't seem to pester the hens too much. Each cockerel seems to have his own little following, though there is a bit of swapping and changing. The RIR is not interested in the pekin hens and sticks to his big girls and the pekin boys try it on with the big girls but don't get very far. 

Maybe an extra coop, even a small one, would help.

[jaykay]

I have 5 cockerels and about 30 hens. They don't seem to hassle each other or the hens toooo much - there are assorted skirmishes, but that just seems to be life in a flock.

I wonder if two cockerels is like two tups - they can concentrate on fighting each other. More than two, and the dynamics change?

[Stereo]

Yeah, they are all so busy trying to stop the other boys getting some action, they are too knackered to actually have a proper fight. That's what we find anyway. I'm lucky in that my boss cockerel is a gentleman. Good to his ladies, never has a go at me and just warns off the other boys, doesn't attack them. I'm guessing he is on his best behaviour in case I tell the rest of the cockerels that his name is 'Peep'.

In terms of breeding pens, I plan to keep them together all year. But in a 50 metre net with a decent house.

[chrismahon]

The cockerels are left with their hens all year in the breeding sets. They establish a firm flock and follow their cockerel everywhere. The 'spare' cockerels are penned separately. I wouldn't dream of putting them all together. Fine if they had never been separated but now get within a metre of each other and they start baiting each other. I have no doubt if they were taken from their hens and put together they would fight to the last man standing and we would probably lose all of them from injury.