This was interesting informative, inspiring, and very encouraging. I'm relatively new to hen keeping (4 years now) and completely new to roosters (I have two 5 month old cockerels who hatched at the same time here on the farm -- with probable but diluted gamefowl genetics. Yikes). But I'm fascinated with these animals and their complexities. I've learned how to treat most of the common problems competently. I take the time to observe and observing brings me great inner peace.
So given what I've read here about the tribe dynamics, I'm encouraged about the prospects for my two boys being able to live here, together but apart, with their own tribes. I've already seen how my little flock is naturally dividing itself between the hens who have been successfully claimed by the faster-maturing cockerel, and the others who are not so easily charmed showing a tolerance-bordering-on-friendship for the other one. I've mulled over the idea of creating a second space where the second cockerel could bond with a tribe of his own, and this article shows me that I could be on a good track with that.
Given that the chickens here already free roam and roost in their coop voluntarily, and I have a multi-acre land with trees orchards in a jungle environment (the Ecuador cloud forest), I can't think of a better place to carry on a similar multi-coop set up and observation experiment as you have done here.
It had also crossed my mind when reading advice like "You need at least 12 hens to 1 rooster" that this must be a result of keeping the birds somehow confined. Because you wouldn't find those ratios in a natural setting with jungle fowl. The way you've presented your observations just makes more intuitive sense with free roaming birds.
Thank you for the insights. I'm encouraged that I won't have to eliminate one of these handsome fellas.
Oh! And the part about the herding shuffle made me smile. Paco, the faster maturing cockerel, has been doing this to me every morning when I walk out to the feed area. Maybe he thinks I'm going to eat breakfast with them! Anyway, it didn't feel like aggression, but I was wondering what on earth he was doing... Thanks!