Separate rooster coop

[fmh]

Hi all,

I'm building a new chicken coop to fit our 2 hens and one rooster, plus a new female chick that will be added but we just were given five more hens from a relative who couldn't take care of them. We will have room for a couple more hens, but it will be cramped for all of them. We've also got male chick. We weren't sure what we were going to do with the rooster chick, he is super friendly (so far) and we aren't sure how old our current rooster is, so we thought he might be worth hanging on to. So now I'm thinking of building a separate rooster coop for the two roosters to help deal with the space problems. I have plenty of extra building materials, so it makes sense.

Does anyone have any tips and advice for having a separate rooster coop? Should they be far away from each other? We have lots of predators around and I think our rooster helps keep the hens safe, so ideally, I'd just like to separate them at night. We also have a large fenced area for them, so could they share that area?

Also any tips for introducing a second rooster and not having roosters hurt each other? Our chick is only 3 weeks old.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The area I used for my males as a bachelor pad was right next to the main flock. I used it to grow out cockerels to butcher size, usually around 23 weeks. I never had any serious problems with them fighting even though the pullets and hens sere right across the wire. At that age their hormones were pretty strong. Most of the time I raised the cockerels to butcher age with the flock, not in that isolation pen, but occasionally their behavior would get bad enough that I'd isolate them. Once I separated them form the flock they calmed down.

It sounds like you recently hatched two chicks and you can tell already that one is male, one is female. Are they with a broody hen now or in a brooder? At three weeks those are just babies so not sure what is going on. Since you got those extra five hens you might want to look at ways to expand that coop you are building if you can. That may help you more in the long term than building a separate bachelor pad.

You are not likely to see any problems at all between that rooster and the male chick until that cockerel is well into his teens as far as weeks go. You may never see any problems. If I understand your situation correctly I'd raise the chick with the flock until I had a reason to separate it. You may ever have a reason to separate it from the flock. Or if you do, it maybe best to remove it and house it by itself, not with the adult rooster. But not for several months yet. Some of that may depend on how big that fenced area is.

 

[fmh]

Thanks for your input! The two chicks are now in a brooder (they're sex-linked, so that's how I can tell already), so I'm just thinking ahead to what they'll need. They're living in our porch until they get a bit older. We're living on a farm and have a pretty big fenced area that could be expanded if necessary.

 

[annaBsChick]

You can keep multiple roosters together! It's called a bachelor flock. However, you just need to be careful and make sure that they get along ok and that there is enough space and hide/get away spots for them to go, to get away from the other if need be. Here is a good infographic on ways to go about introducing birds to a flock - http://www.poultrydvm.com/featured-infographic/caring-for-newly-adopted-chicken