Roosters and New pullets

I have a dilemma. My wife and I are new to the backyard chicken thing but always wanted them and now we are faced with a little situation. I have 3 roosters ( free range)that we have had since early April and are pretty big but fight with each other ( ie bite each others comb and chase each other over the one hen(just started laying) that seems to be protected by my one rooster( Big Red) They all want a piece of the hen though. We started to pick up and hold our rooster after they argue and it seems to help. 15min of holding until they subdue. two of the rooster are dominant and the other one is very passive and hasn't even crowed once. We also have 5 pullets that are about 7-8 weeks old that we want to introduce to the flock to increase the ratio. We tried to put some in the run and to get to know each other but the hen started the pecking order and her protector "Big Red" grabs one of the pullets by the neck and I had to break it up. We do have a larger fenced in area that we can put them all together and sit back and monitor them. Our roosters do OK for the most part but want them to just calm down just a bit so they can enjoy the new flock members. We realize we have too many roosters but for now they will have to stay. How do we handle this situation. Any suggestions?

How many hens do you have? I think the pullets are much too young to be put in with the older chickens.

6 total hens. 1 that is laying and 5 that are 8 weeks old. We really got screws when we bought 6 chicks from Tractor Supply and all but one was a hen. So we ordered from Ideal Poultry can received the pullets which were quarantined for about a month then added to our large coop with the other birds but divided in half with chicken wire.

I see a couple of issues to address here.

First I would wait until the pullets were at least 10 weeks before introducing and then I would try to do it first with a wire divider between the mature and young birds for a few day to let then become familiar without direct contact so the cannot fight. This assumes your coop/pen is designed so you can do this. Next I would allow initial contact free range if possible.

Second As you said the ratio of rooster to hen is to high. With ratio you most likely will not be able to keep them all together with out fighting. My suggestion would be to keep the rooster you would like to have bread with the hens and keep the others separated from them. Personally I would not try to keep three roosters with anything less than fifteen hens I would prefer twenty five or more.

Tom

I like your suggestion. I know my wife wants to keep at least one rooster. Basically I have 1 rooster( RIR) that has really come to love my laying hen and is a beautiful looking bird but dominant and protective. The other rooster(a leghorn breed) is also dominate trying to go after the hen but fights with the RIR rooster. My other rooster also a leghorn is quiet calm , never crows and never hangs with the other two because they are dominate. He's really just looking for a purpose to be a apart of the flock but he tends to follow my wife and I around . I never really worry about him. Last night my two other rooster got into it and he ran out of the coop and hid in the corner scared. I did put him with the pullets for a few minutes to calm and he did very well just ate some food and relaxed. So I'm up in the air on who to rehome.

To me, it's so unfair to the hen to have that many roosters. I have 1 rooster (BO) to 45 hens. I still have plenty of fertile eggs and it gives the hens a rest. When I had 2 roosters to 21 hens some had missing feathers and scratches on their backs. My husband killed one after it spurred me to the bone on both legs. I would watch that RIR rooster, they can be mean when they get older. My GSL and BA roosters were nice for awhile and then they turned mean. I did everything I read to make them gentle and nothing worked. It was the GSL rooster that got me. He was the last one to crow but after I sold the BA rooster (it's hard to watch your back with two watching your ever move) he got really mean.

Last January we purchased 26 chicks from Ideal (24 RIR pullets and 1 BO rooster). We got 28 when they arrived and two of the RIR's turned out rooster. I gave the 2 RIR roosters to a neighbor down the street. So far the BO rooster hasn't been mean or showed himself to be mean. I will not give him the chances that I gave the GSL rooster, just once and he's gone. It was quite painful to be spurred. I had to take antibiotics and pain pills after two trips to the ER ($$) and spending two days on crutches due to left foot's swelling.

Just my opinion!

Pick one rooster to keep. Sell, give away or butcher the others. Failing that, set up a bachelor pad for two of the boys. House them separate from the hens.

To introduce the hen to the pullets--when the pullets are around 12 weeks old introduce just the hen. This can mean putting her in the run with the littles, or putting the rooster in the run and free ranging the littles with the hen. Take the rooster out of the equation and let the hen and the littles work it out. One mature hen and several littles usually work things out quickly, and no littles get hurt cause they outnumber her so. Have a few hiding places for the littles to get away from her and within a few days you should be good to re-introduce the rooster.

My roosters never mate immature pullets, but I've read of it happening. Keep an eye on your guy to see which camp he falls into. You'll need to protect your littles if he tries to mate them, pull him out until they're sexually mature.

If I were to keep one of my roosters which one would you recommend? i ideally would like just one ....

I tend to stay with the prettiest bird and the one I just like the best

So you have two white Leghorns and a Red, correct?

You'll need to take a look at your plans down the road. Is this rooster going to sire chicks?

Are you more interested in the offspring being layers, or having some meat to them for table birds? If egg production is paramount, then keep a Leghorn boy. Infusing Leghorn blood into a dual purpose flock has significantly increased egg production in the next generations in my flock. if you plan to butcher, the Leghorn blood makes for some scrawny carcasses.

You mentioned free ranging...does bird color matter to you? A white Leghorn rooster will throw mostly white chicks with flecks of color. Lots of folks find free ranging white birds is like ringing the dinner bell for predators. Other colors blend, white sticks out and is easily seen.

As far as alerting/protecting the flock while ranging, I think any will do fine. Even the omega right now, if you get rid of the other roosters he'll step up and become a flock leader within a few months. You never know how protective a rooster will be with predators. They'll all sound the alert. Some will head toward the predator, some will run with the hens.

Your intervening in the rooster's pecking order (holding them after they squabble) is not doing anything, and may be delaying them deciding who is boss of who. Let them finish and reach a conclusion on their own. They have to have a social order, they won't all just be friends on the same level. That's not how animals work. This should be a moot point as you really need to get rid of two roosters, but I understand that can't always happen overnight

Thank you sooo much for the input . But you are correct I have one RIR and two leghorns. One of the leghorns is very calm never even crows. Our main focus is egg production. At this point raising chicks is a possibility but not on the agenda. Getting the flock in order before winter is a main priority right now. The RIR rooster did try and bite the one pullet ( 2 RIR and 3 barred rocks pullets for total amount of pullets) we just put one of them in the run to see what would happen. If we kept him(RIR rooster) I really hope that's not an indication of his demeanor when we intro the whole flock together.

in regards to your comment about holding the rooster delaying the pecking order. We started to do this about a week ago when the fighting was getting a little too much for us ie blood and scabs on the comb. This suggestion was brought to us by another forum member. The 2 or 3 times we has done this has really calmed them down, just the one RIR and leghorn, as before they would chase my wife but are now in line with the fact that we are head boss. I really have no complaints with the calm leghorn who just follows us around and always comes for treats. While all the Rooster are roaming the property the one leghorn just hangs with me and chills. I'd like to keep him but fear he's just not a strong to handle the flock but that might be because we have two other dominate birds.

Thoughts?