2 Roosters 1 Crowing

[FryerCluck]

Hi there! I have 15 chickens. 13 hens and 2 roosters. One is a full RI Red and the other is a RI Red/Buff Orpington mix. They hatched together so they are the same age. Almost 9 months old. The RI Red/Buff is the bigger one. He's also the one who mates with all the hens. While the 2 roosters get along pretty well and don't fight, I'm wondering why only my RI Red/Buff is the one who crows. My RI Red never crows, and I also haven't observed him mating with the hens. He did at the start of that stage of maturity, but I haven't seem him as active in it as the RI Red/Buff. Any reason why? Is it because our mixed Rooster is obviously the dominant one that the RI Red doesn't mate or crow? Just curious. Thanks!

 

[Squawkers]

Hi there! I have 15 chickens. 13 hens and 2 roosters. One is a full RI Red and the other is a RI Red/Buff Orpington mix. They hatched together so they are the same age. Almost 9 months old. The RI Red/Buff is the bigger one. He's also the one who mates with all the hens. While the 2 roosters get along pretty well and don't fight, I'm wondering why only my RI Red/Buff is the one who crows. My RI Red never crows, and I also haven't observed him mating with the hens. He did at the start of that stage of maturity, but I haven't seem him as active in it as the RI Red/Buff. Any reason why? Is it because our mixed Rooster is obviously the dominant one that the RI Red doesn't mate or crow? Just curious. Thanks!

Somebody else might have a better answer, but I know that roosters are all different. I had a rooster that started crowing at 5 weeks old and another one that didn’t start crowing until he was about 4 months old. And yes, unless I’m mistaken, sometimes the submissive rooster will act less like a rooster.

 

[Tstraub]

I have somewhat limited experience raising multiple cockerels together. Your experience sounds the way mine behaved at that age. One took the lead and the others fell in line. That being said they are still young and it’s not peak breeding season right now. If yours act like mine did you’re going notice very different behavior come spring time.

When the spring hormones kick in the submissive one will likely challenge the other for his right to breed the hens. Some people report having multiple males get along for years but that wasn’t my experience at least not during spring time.

 

[Chicken_tiger_catt]

Hi there! I have 15 chickens. 13 hens and 2 roosters. One is a full RI Red and the other is a RI Red/Buff Orpington mix. They hatched together so they are the same age. Almost 9 months old. The RI Red/Buff is the bigger one. He's also the one who mates with all the hens. While the 2 roosters get along pretty well and don't fight, I'm wondering why only my RI Red/Buff is the one who crows. My RI Red never crows, and I also haven't observed him mating with the hens. He did at the start of that stage of maturity, but I haven't seem him as active in it as the RI Red/Buff. Any reason why? Is it because our mixed Rooster is obviously the dominant one that the RI Red doesn't mate or crow? Just curious. Thanks!

he's probably quiet because he knows that half Orpington could take him down in a second if he even thought about the hens.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Any reason why? Is it because our mixed Rooster is obviously the dominant one that the RI Red doesn't mate or crow? Just curious.

I assume you've heard of the pecking order. A mixed flock like yours has three different pecking orders. One is the overall pecking order. Every chicken in your flock knows where they stand in relation to every other chicken. This doesn't always work out the way you would expect. Maturity is a factor. Until they are all mature any more-mature chicken outranks a less-mature chicken. Size is not that important, there are plenty of cases where bantams rank higher than full-sized fowl. Mature hens can outrank mature roosters. It all depends on the personality of the individual chicken.

You have a dominant hen. All the others knows which hens are more dominant than them.

Same with your roosters. Every rooster knows which other roosters are more dominant than him. Each is an individual, they don't always act the same way. Some can share better than others. Often, if they have room, two or more roosters might split the flock, each claiming their own territory and their own harem. The hens decide which rooster they join, by the way. It is also common, if they stay together, for the submissive rooster to not crow, not tidbit the hens, not try to mate, to be totally submissive to the dominant one. You may occasionally see them fighting, the submissive one trying to unseat the boss. Or they may never fight.

 

[FryerCluck]

Thanks for all the info guys! The Buff mix is definitely the boss, but sometimes one of the Buff Orpington hens will tell him off after he mates with her. It's funny to watch.

 

[Janet Brad]

I assume you've heard of the pecking order. A mixed flock like yours has three different pecking orders. One is the overall pecking order. Every chicken in your flock knows where they stand in relation to every other chicken. This doesn't always work out the way you would expect. Maturity is a factor. Until they are all mature any more-mature chicken outranks a less-mature chicken. Size is not that important, there are plenty of cases where bantams rank higher than full-sized fowl. Mature hens can outrank mature roosters. It all depends on the personality of the individual chicken.

You have a dominant hen. All the others knows which hens are more dominant than them.

Same with your roosters. Every rooster knows which other roosters are more dominant than him. Each is an individual, they don't always act the same way. Some can share better than others. Often, if they have room, two or more roosters might split the flock, each claiming their own territory and their own harem. The hens decide which rooster they join, by the way. It is also common, if they stay together, for the submissive rooster to not crow, not tidbit the hens, not try to mate, to be totally submissive to the dominant one. You may occasionally see them fighting, the submissive one trying to unseat the boss. Or they may never fight.

Yes. I adopted a small longstanding flock consisting of 3 roosters and a hen. Only one rooster would mate with the hen. He was the boss and the others respected that. Later we added more hens to the flock so the others had one or two hens each, but the dominant one would ocassionaly challenge them.

 

[Mrs. K]

Being raised together has almost no influence on mature behavior. And a big point is, how they are behaving today is NOT an indicator how they will behave tomorrow, next week or a couple of months from now.

They may never fight, they may fight once and be done, or they may fight, quit, fight again, or fight to the death. One never knows. If you have multiple roosters, you need multiple plans, and at the very least, a way to separate them if the go to fighting. A long handle fish net, leather gloves, long sleeved sweat shirt and a dog crate near at hand to separate fighting birds is a good plan B.

Mrs K

 

[UpstateChickenDaddy]

Having just adopted out my second rooster because of fighting I can only tell you my experience. Both started crowing about the same time. However when Henry asserted dominance, Charles stopped crowing entirely. The day I adopted out Henry, Charles began crowing again. Maybe chance. Maybe dominance so as not to call attention to himself. No clue. But since the two were separated Charles seems to want to crow all day long.

 

[FryerCluck]

Huh. The makes sense. Pince, my RIRedBuff is the dominant one. Roscoe, the RIRed rooster is the one who never crows. Thanks for the insight!