2 roosters

[moodybubbles]

I have 7 hens and one rooster. Most are Easter eggers including the rooster. They free range all day and either they aren't laying or I can't find any eggs period. This rooster has never bothered me at all. Runs away from me if I'm around.

I have one rooster that lives with the goats. He is the only offspring I was able to hatch and keep alive. He occasionally bothers me over his food. Runs at me, fluffed feathers standing tall. Also Easter egger. Looks just like the main rooster.

I want to build a new coop and them all live on that side of the fence because I need to be able to find the eggs. I don't expect goat roo to live with the chickens but I do need them to get along because it would be a shared large 3 acre or so area for daytime.

Goat roo gets a limp pretty easily but seems more aggressive. Do these breeds tend to fight? My husband has seen them fussing at each other through the fence.

 

[aart]

It's not so much about breed as gender.

If the younger male has not integrated into the flock, is fussing with the older male and is being aggressive to you,
I would invite him to dinner or otherwise remove him from the property.

 

[moodybubbles]

He was with the flock when he was a couple of months old but after a couple of days I went to let them out in the morning and found him crumpled with his head in the corner. Seemed disoriented and a bit floppy.

That was before I knew his gender. It's hard to have a single chick that needs to be integrated. He isn't super aggressive with me. I have to feed him separately from goats or they will eat his food. He only acts like that when to go to dump the rest on the ground so the goats don't devour it but he can still eat it.

You don't think I can put them together? It would be an invasion of the little roo's space. I don't want a fight to the death and I have worked hard for goat roo's survival. I could move him to be with the ducks. He's kind of dumb.

 

[moodybubbles]

I've seen him messing with the goats even. Trying to tell them who's boss.

 

[aart]

He was with the flock when he was a couple of months old but after a couple of days I went to let them out in the morning and found him crumpled with his head in the corner. Seemed disoriented and a bit floppy.

That was before I knew his gender. It's hard to have a single chick that needs to be integrated. He isn't super aggressive with me. I have to feed him separately from goats or they will eat his food. He only acts like that when to go to dump the rest on the ground so the goats don't devour it but he can still eat it.

You don't think I can put them together? It would be an invasion of the little roo's space. I don't want a fight to the death and I have worked hard for goat roo's survival. I could move him to be with the ducks. He's kind of dumb.

It sounds like a difficult situation, there's probably a solution (tho I don't know what it is) but it may take a lot of effort on your part to manage.
I look at it like this: If I don't need 2 males, I don't want 2 males because it's a pain in the patootie.

But I keep a small, simple, confined flock for egg production....
.....one male for reproduction, new batch of home hatched chicks each spring, 2 batches of meat each year(extra cockerels at 15 weeks old, oldest layers in fall).

If I did need 2 males and they didn't get along.... I would house them separately, maybe with their own girls.

Others may chime in with solutions, many keep multiple males.

 

[azygous]

As Aart more or less pointed out, the key here is to keep the two roosters apart and separate. This is the only way you can keep both and not invite bloodshed. They have already given you reason to expect this outcome if you integrate them.

I've found, as you have, too, that lone roos do quite well without a flock as long as they have companions, even if not of their own species. Your younger boy should get along just fine with the ducks if you place him with them. Or just keep him with the goats somehow.

But, bottom line is you aren't going to be able to put the two roos together and expect a peaceful outcome.

 

[hytop3]

OK, here is the deal, I have been around chickens since child hood on the farm. Raised them by the thousands. Unless you have a game breed a fight to the death is unlikely. However, when they do fight there will be one of two things happen: 1. they will spare and one will quit and quicky run with no blood shed. 2. They will spare and there will be a little blood shed but not death.
Let them fight under your supervision to make sure they will not fight to the death, one will come out the winner, and the other one will run from the winner, let the winner chase the loser as this establishes who is boss. This will be a one time deal as the loser understands his status and is allowed to stay close to the flock but not mate.
However, LOL, every now and then when the King rooster is not watching the underling will do a quick mate and run like the devil as he knows the King is gonna be on his butt. The King will not chase him very far and within 5 to 10 minutes the underling is allowed to be close to the flock again.
Most people want to treat animals like they are human, ie. put a dog on a vegitarian diet, etc. Let the animal of any specie be themselves yet not letting them kill each other.
If you put any animal by itself, it will have a shortened life. One response above was a correct and proper response, Make a pen for the underling and give him some hens. Everything else I read was trying to make a animal a human. The only other options are to let the roosters decide who is boss and you dont have to build a pen.
Now, there is one other option, get about 12 or more hens and some of those hens will eventually go with the underling. So you will have two seperate flocks co-existing with each other and will not have t build a pen, p.s. even with 12 hens the roosters will still fight at least once but this is nerver a death fight.

I could say so much more. /but gonna stop here.
hytop

 

[hytop3]

I want to address the little chicken in the corner with his head down looking crumpled.

Even though this chick is of there blood, then hens as well as the rooster is picking on him, this is one case the I might seperate him for about 2 weeks. Here is the thing even is you seperated him for eight months the would still pick at him. Surelly you have heard of pecking order, its in every flock.

This is what I would do: 1. If his health is ok leave him with the flock they will evwentually accept him, and he will know his pecking order.
2. If he is weak, seperate him where the others can't get to him for a week or so, then turn him back out with the flock.
Let the chickens be chickens.

 

[moodybubbles]

He was half their size when I put him with the flock. I needed to do something with him as he was the lone survivor and was no longer welcome in my laundry room where he was born. I had intended for 2 flocks but had such a poor hatch rate....

Now being the only survivor of my first successful hatch, I really want to keep him around, even though he is dumber than most. Obviously had something wrong in the incubation, be it humidity or temp slightly off.

If you think it would not be a fight to the death with minimal bloodshed, then I can deal with that. I know he would likely end up on the bottom pecking order wise. The older rooster seems easier to be around anyway.
I would like to optimally keep my flock without purchasing new birds. They really are cheap enough though so I could add just pullets and give him his own or just have enough hens for two. I dont really want separate housing facilities for them unless I move him to the ducks.

Too many roos was going to be a problem anyway if I had a better hatch rate. Not that I mind inviting extra roosters to dinner, I just don't know how to process them. Seems like a lot of work.

 

[aart]

It is a lot of work......set up and cleanup more than the kill to chill...but you can do it, and IMO almost essential if you're going to hatch.
I didn't know how either until I learned by watching lots of tutorials and videos, getting the gear set up, and the nerve up.
This was the best tutorial I found for the jugular slit and the no spill intestine removal.
http://ramblingredneckmom.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-to-process-chickens-at-home.html