Anyone Keep Multiple Roosters Successfully?

[ThinMintTheChicken]

Had 5 at one time. They all lived together, slept together, and free-ranged together within sight of the hens. Never had a problem except for them mating each other but they never fought. Now all but 2 have moved into the other flocks (1 in our main flock and 2 now lead our younger flock). 1 was a silkie, 2 were silkie cochin bantams, and the other 2 that still live together/where they were originally are some sort of cochin LF mix (they're big). Unsure what those guys are, we were told that one was a black cochin and one a white cochin but they are neither. Anyways, we rarely get rooster fights, the occasion fight breaks out among one of our silkie cochin bantams (Orchid) and one of our barnyard mixes (Snickerdoodle) it usually ends up with Orchid becoming bald because Snickerdoodle pecks out his crest. Never gotten any worse than that, Orchid is embarrassed for quite a while after though

 

[Show Sebright]

We ha a flock of 5 silky roosters and 6 hens. They do fine. No over mating.

 

[Thunder344]

I currently have 62 chickens, seven of which are roosters, Theyre all brothers. They have more than enough girls, more than enough space (coop is 16x18 i think, run is 60x48, plus a 40x40 electric fence) They always sleep together on the roosts. It's really cute. Usually no fighting, they do sometimes do mock fights, and the only major one was when they were younger. I think you would be perfectly fine with 2 boys.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

I understand what you mean. We live in the woods (foxes, coyote, bobcat, skunks, raccoon, opossum, snakes, hawks, owls, eagles, bear, mountain lion). And this is going to sound way cooler than it is in reality, but money isn't that much of an issue ( - if only that were true in the larger sense!). I could keep my current coop for a new flock and move my existing flock to where we were planning to move them: reuse the goat house and get new non-electric fencing. I say non-electric because the area we are moving them to would be inside the goat fence, which is electric. The 4 smallish goats have a little more than 1 acre. They can give up some of that, no prob.

I mentioned this in an earlier post, but we were hoping to use the area where the chickens are currently to plant a small orchard. But I might be able to do both. The new flock will likely consist of the new cockerel with 7 pullets. My current flock is my rooster, 8 hens, and 3 8-month old pullets. The 5 ducks live with that flock, too, so they need much more space.

Biggest problem? Hubby isn't happy. But I know how to handle him. We just celebrated 25 years. And I'm the primary breadwinner, so....

Happy wife, happy life

(Those 4 words, said with a sweet smile, have nipped many a possible squabble right in the bud, with my sweetie )

 

[ShawnaLeigh]

Honestly it entirely depends on the two individual roosters. You may have no problems or you may have all kinds of problems. I would try it and see what happens, knowing you may need to rehome the cockerel if it doesn't work out.

If you have the patience to make it through cockerel puberty you may come out just fine. I have kept cockerels and mature roosters without issue, I end up rehoming the cockerels due to crowing issues (I currently have neighbors I don't want to push toooooo far) but I didn't have interaction issues between them, the cockerel was extremely respectful of the mature rooster.

Try it and see! Just be ready to act if things start to go in a direction that doesn't work for your flock.

 

[Dela _gurl]

I have read lots of bad situations with multiple roosters. I just want to be as close to 100% sure as possible before I decide what to do.

I have an established flock of 8 hens, 3 laying pullets, and 1 rooster, mixed ages (8 months - 3.5 years).

I have two 2-week old chicks (a pullet and a cockerel) in the brooder.

I am expecting an order of 6 female chicks in early May. The final ratio would be 2 males:18 females.

I will have a 10x10 coop ready before the current 2 in the brooder are ready to go outside. I will also have a 1600+ sq ft yard for them. Free ranging is not possible here due to huuuuge predator load.

I would *like* to keep both males, but I know that invites a whole host of potential problems. And I want to do right by all the birds involved.

1) In your folks' experience, is that a big enough area to help alleviate issues?

2) is it even possible for 2 unrelated boys to cohabitate?

3) Would having separate coops help? I am not keen on building another, but I can, or I can try dividing the 10x10.

4) Or should I just rehome one of the males? (Full disclosure: I don't eat my chickens) I realize whoever gets one will probably turn him into soup.

Any advice/input would be hugely appreciated.

It depends on space and how territorial the rooster is I feel. We currently have 3 roosters and like 10-15 hens. However, we 100% free range and they don’t even stay within 10 feet of each other unless they’re in the coop or barn sleeping. It really depends but you could also split your hens and put them each with a different roo.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Friends have a free range setup within 1 acre, about 30 chickens various breeds & 10 ducks, 1 turkey. 4 are Roos, 3 Bantam 1 RIR.
They have multiple food & water & covered perching areas, 2 coops when tucked in for the night, birds have their choice which coop. They also have cats & 2 medium size dogs. Everyone gets along pretty well. Yes, sometimes there's a pecking order squabble but there's never any bloodshed. The turkey is actually the peace keeper & fight ender. Once she walks over, the squabbling "kids" behave.

My setup is different due to constant predators. I have coops with attached predator proof pens. The only times my flock can free range are when I am outside with them. I also have different breeds, various ages, that grew up together in batches. I have 10 Roos. With mine, I found that some can exist peacefully as a bachelor coop, but it must be away from where hens are. The Wyandotte brothers...nope, had to split those boys up. My Buff Orpington, EE & RIR mix stayed nice about 2 yrs, then started picking on RIRs huge, gorgeous comb, so then it was Buff & EE...then this Spring I had to split them up. I don't want bloody battered combs, not cool. So...yes I'm sure if I had larger pen space or a free range scenario, they'd probably still be together.

Bigger coop & overall pen space allows for separate sections, so that's worked for mine.
I can scoop up & hug All of my Roos, only 1 has slight attitude at times. I've only had 1 Roo turn vicious. He was fast & protective of his hens, better at a free range setup, so he was rehomed to that scenario. The surprising part to me...my sweetest Roo of all time is a Red EE named Baby Roo...& the one that turned mean was a Red EE, named Baron...so you never know.
It really does matter, as far as individual personality of each Roo is concerned.
I just strive for ALL to be safe & as happy as possible...synergy, harmony, etc. So far, so good.

(Seaparate coop sections & predator proof pen sections, the entire perimeter dug down 3 feet in case fox digs for a chicken dinner)

 

[ChicksnMore]

I have four flocks with multiple roos in two of them. In my experience some breeds are easy for multiple roos and some are awful that way.

My Yokohama's are easy going and adding birds has never been a problem. They posture etc, but never really tear each other up. They're the easiest birds I've ever raised as far as personality.

Then there was my serama flock...they were the hardest I've ever raised for integrating. Some of the males couldn't tolerate another male around at all and some of the hens were just as bad. I came up with all kinds of tricks to get them to accept new birds and some just couldn't accept a new bird no matter what I tried. What worked best for them though was to move them all to a new space, add the newcomers to the coop I wanted them in, then add the older birds back a few at a time, starting with the easiest going. That worked so well that it's my routine for adding new birds now although I no longer keep seramas. Even though it works great, with the seramas I still ended up culling some because they'd kill each other if allowed to.

Removing aggressive birds and isolating them for a day or two works well to end the worst of the fighting though.

Good luck with your birds!

 

[kurby22]

Thanks, everyone. This is helpful, even though there are many differing opinions.

I think I'm going to try to rehome my current rooster. If I can rehome him within the next month, I won't end up with 2 males together at all while this little one is still in the brooder.

My older rooster s a good rooster to my hens (except for my top hen, who won't tolerate him). But he really has it in for me. He's not aggressive towards anyone else, so I know I probably didn't raise him well. Lesson learned, I think.

I figure I'll start over with this new cockerel now that I know more.

I agree with @TheFatBlueCat that it depends on the individual roosters. I currently have 4 roosters that share 24 hens, which sounds bad but has been completely fine so far. I have 2 true Ameraucana roosters and a bantam cochin rooster (9 months old) that were all raised together. I added an Olandsk Dwarf rooster when I bought a breeding trio and he's very little but mighty. He and the head rooster have had a couple pretty serious fights that have caused lost feathers, and the head rooster and the bantam cochin have had a few bouts over the ladies...but nothing serious. They have lots of room to run and hide when they've crossed the line and all the boys respect the head rooster boy.

I do NOT think this would work if they had not been raised together and were different breeds. I had a giant lavender Orpington that was top dog, and everyone respected him as well but he passed in December. I do not think I could have kept the other 4 if I still had him, I don't believe he would have allowed it. He was also more bratty with people too (not with me, just everyone else). The four I have now all respect humans and the lady hens and integration is pretty easy with new additions. I really like the flock dynamic I have and I hope it stays tranquil!

 

[microchick]

I think somebody told the Big Guy upstairs that I love roosters because I sure manage to hatch out a lot of them.

IMHO I think a lot has to do with the breed of rooster also. My Egyptian Fayoumi/gamebird/barnyard cross roosters have inherited the gamebird gameness and will bully my Fayoumis rooster until he will abdicate flock master to them. I love the gentleness of the EF roosters. They will tolerate other EF roosters in the flock but I recently made the decision to pull all of the large roosters with Gamebird genes from my main flock so that my EF rooster could once again become flock master and I'm hoping to hatch another EF rooster with a current clutch of eggs in my incubator.

I also have 9 SDW OEGB roosters that share the hens in another coop. No problems outside of the fact that I need more hens. Minimal fighting, they do try to do dominant mating with one another but nobody gets hurt while my gamebird/barnyard crosses regularly blind one another in at least one eye.

There are just so many different things that can go into keeping roosters. One thing I would never try to do is introduce an adult rooster into my flocks. They always do better when intergraded while juveniles and can work things out with the flock master.