Roosters and harems and stress levels.

I have an overload of roosters. I don't want to find homes for all of them and was thinking of having two roosters, with hens, in two seperate coops. If the coops are in close proximity and in constant sight, would the two roosters be constantly stressed and busting to get at each other?
I have a polish rooster with 3 hens and two silkie roosters. Thinking about keeping the buff silkie rooster and getting him some hens in his own seperate coop.
Ideas? Thoughts? Oh they wouldn't be allowed out together.
Thanks.

Either you need to get at least 8 hens for each boy, or you need to face the reality of getting straight run chicks, and that means letting some go to new homes.

No chicks here. But thanks for your assumption anyway.

I do what you are trying to do each year with multiple groups. With American Dominiques which are similar to yours I make certain flocks / harems are either free-ranged in alternate days or have lots of space to move about separately. You can do the 1 to 1 ratio when areas they can forage are ample and the roosters are mature (> 1 year, sometimes more).

I'm not sure of your set up, but here's some things I've done.

I once had a grow out pen sharing a fence with a breeding pen. The mature rooster in the breeding pen has always been pretty laid back, but since I was putting a ton of cockerels right next to him I didn't want to chance fence fighting. My fence was a metal horse panel overlaid with chicken wire. I simply put a tarp up along the panel to block line of sight. The birds could hear and smell each other, but since they couldn't see each other there were no issues.

Not every rooster needs 8-10 hens. Lots of folks run breeding pens with trios, or other smaller numbers. The above breeding pen had one rooster and 4 or 5 hens and the ladies always looked fine and the pen was calm and harmonious. It's one of those try it and see how it goes things, so much depends on the individual birds in question. I plan to pull my silkie rooster out of my layer flock and start a breeding pen with probably 4 hens. this is a young rooster so I'll have to keep an eye on the hens and see how he treats them.

Another option to manage excess roosters is a bachelor pad. I've found that without females to fight over, males will get along well for the most part.

You need a great deal of space, do you have it?

I keep many roosters on my farm. My Silkie pen contains 2 roosters and 15 hens. My mixed breed free range coop has 3 roosters and 30 hens (and many pullets and a trio of ducks). I also have a group of 6 roosters that live in a bachelor coop and free range a 14 acre pasture with my pigs. All of my flocks are harmonious and the hens have all of their feathers in place. Theres minimal fighting, the occasional small squabble with one roo running another off for whatever reason, but they get along well. If you have the space, I see no reason why you'd have any problems. My Silkie coop and mixed coop share a fence and they seem pretty oblivious to each other. And when I have chicks running around, they always go through the fence and roam with the other flock without issue. My flocks are all pretty laid back though, if you've got aggressive roosters, you might find yourself in a completely different situation.

Good luck.

I think I have settled on a second coop, keeping the buff roo and finding him some buff hens. I will send the first silkie rooster back to the auction. I think I want to try out breeding and showing buff silkies.
But yeah my polish all get along fine without any squabbles. There are 3 hens and 1 roo. I plan to do the same with the silkies.
I will let each coop free range on alternate days.
Thanks for your input everyone.

Yay! I have found some hens for our red rooster! Now to make a new coop for them all and i can pick them up!
Also our white and black silkie has found a nice home, he is going up be a rooster to a little flock of hens too.