Anyone Keep Multiple Roosters Successfully?

[Aunt Angus]

I have read lots of bad situations with multiple roosters. I just want to be as close to 100% sure as possible before I decide what to do.

I have an established flock of 8 hens, 3 laying pullets, and 1 rooster, mixed ages (8 months - 3.5 years).

I have two 2-week old chicks (a pullet and a cockerel) in the brooder.

I am expecting an order of 6 female chicks in early May. The final ratio would be 2 males:18 females.

I will have a 10x10 coop ready before the current 2 in the brooder are ready to go outside. I will also have a 1600+ sq ft yard for them. Free ranging is not possible here due to huuuuge predator load.

I would *like* to keep both males, but I know that invites a whole host of potential problems. And I want to do right by all the birds involved.

1) In your folks' experience, is that a big enough area to help alleviate issues?

2) is it even possible for 2 unrelated boys to cohabitate?

3) Would having separate coops help? I am not keen on building another, but I can, or I can try dividing the 10x10.

4) Or should I just rehome one of the males? (Full disclosure: I don't eat my chickens) I realize whoever gets one will probably turn him into soup.

Any advice/input would be hugely appreciated.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

Honestly it entirely depends on the two individual roosters. You may have no problems or you may have all kinds of problems. I would try it and see what happens, knowing you may need to rehome the cockerel if it doesn't work out.

If you have the patience to make it through cockerel puberty you may come out just fine. I have kept cockerels and mature roosters without issue, I end up rehoming the cockerels due to crowing issues (I currently have neighbors I don't want to push toooooo far) but I didn't have interaction issues between them, the cockerel was extremely respectful of the mature rooster.

Try it and see! Just be ready to act if things start to go in a direction that doesn't work for your flock.

 

[JedJackson]

Adding a new cockerel in to a flock with an existing rooster usually doesn't end well. They will start to fight once the cockerel starts trying to mate with the hens. Usually the older rooster will then bully the younger one, and it can cause a loss of fertility and stress in the hens. And eventually the younger cockerel usually wins out over the older one, who will decline rapidly after that if he isn't killed outright. It's sad to see.

So from my perspective it would be best to either keep the males entirely separated or to re-home one of them.

 

[Ellasroo]

I have read lots of bad situations with multiple roosters. I just want to be as close to 100% sure as possible before I decide what to do.

I've had 2 roosters with 8 hens (free-range in a large-ish backyard) and it was probably the best state of my flock. They didn't really interact with each other and I never saw them fight, only crow offs.

I got them in separate years, they didn't know each other before. It depends on how your roosters are with each other, I had two super friendly roosters, however, I'm sure different personalities can conflict. I'd say watch how it plays out with them and decide from there.

Best of luck to you and your birds!

 

[igorsMistress]

Yes my son does. On an acre+ lot with lots of ladies to choose from

 

[Shadrach]

I have read lots of bad situations with multiple roosters. I just want to be as close to 100% sure as possible before I decide what to do.

I have an established flock of 8 hens, 3 laying pullets, and 1 rooster, mixed ages (8 months - 3.5 years).

I have two 2-week old chicks (a pullet and a cockerel) in the brooder.

I am expecting an order of 6 female chicks in early May. The final ratio would be 2 males:18 females.

I will have a 10x10 coop ready before the current 2 in the brooder are ready to go outside. I will also have a 1600+ sq ft yard for them. Free ranging is not possible here due to huuuuge predator load.

I would *like* to keep both males, but I know that invites a whole host of potential problems. And I want to do right by all the birds involved.

1) In your folks' experience, is that a big enough area to help alleviate issues?

2) is it even possible for 2 unrelated boys to cohabitate?

3) Would having separate coops help? I am not keen on building another, but I can, or I can try dividing the 10x10.

4) Or should I just rehome one of the males? (Full disclosure: I don't eat my chickens) I realize whoever gets one will probably turn him into soup.

Any advice/input would be hugely appreciated.

1) No
2) Yes
3) Yes
4) Depends.
There's the short version. It's about space in the end. If thhey have enough space even if they don't get on, they can avoid each other.
Related and or same breed always helps but it's not foolproof.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170329103326.htm

You say you don't eat the chickens you keep. Do you eat any chicken?
I've had up to nine roosters/cockerels at one time with minimal problems but they had plenty of room and didn't all have to live together.
While not a complete answer I think that with contained groups one rooster probably works best, at least at the starting point. If a hen sits and hatches chicks from her own eggs fetilised by her rooster the chances of having more than one rooster in the flock improves.

 

[BDutch]

I have no experience with mutiple roosters myself.
As you already know 1 rooster with 8 ladies should be okay. But it depends on the character of the roosters as well as the space wether you can keep them in one coop/run.

I know a breeder who has limited space and many roosters to breed heritage breeds. For maintenance and for shows. He has as much divided coops and runs as he has roosters.

P.s. he sells the hens he doesn’t want to keep , sometimes as a trio with a rooster. And he culls the male surplus/misfits.

 

[chickfused]

There are people who keep just rooster flocks TBH. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone successfully introducing stranger adult roosters to each other, but babies that grow up in a roostered flock and are also male seem to do ok most times. They'll fight for dominance, and sometimes to the death during puberty, but there's a non-zero chance they'll get it all sorted out. I had two unrelated roos recently, and they fought like hell growing up together (hatchmates), but once they were adults they had figured it all out and happily shared a flock of 8 girls. One of them was the muscle and the other was the lookout.

 

[Aunt Angus]

Thanks, everyone. This is helpful, even though there are many differing opinions.

I think I'm going to try to rehome my current rooster. If I can rehome him within the next month, I won't end up with 2 males together at all while this little one is still in the brooder.

My older rooster s a good rooster to my hens (except for my top hen, who won't tolerate him). But he really has it in for me. He's not aggressive towards anyone else, so I know I probably didn't raise him well. Lesson learned, I think.

I figure I'll start over with this new cockerel now that I know more.

 

[RiverOtter]

I always keep multiple roosters, and never had a mean one. I don't try to make them pets, I don't play with them or snuggle them, I don't feed them by hand. And they grow up respecting my space, because they've never been invited into it. Once or twice over the years, I've had one flare up and display at me or get in my space. I chase him down (even if I can just reach down and grab him, I wave him away so I can chase him, I want it set in his mind I am a big, mean predator) and carry him around by his feet for a few minutes once I catch him.

I am currently very low on chickens, I have 14 hens and 2 roosters, a Maran and Buff Cornish. They flared at each other bit when they were young, but get along beautifully now. When they were growing up, the flock was bigger, my old rooster, King Roo was 5 years old and I had 5 other roosters and some cockerel chicks and about 60 hens. We had a fisher cat raid and then I sold a bunch. I mention it because I have kept a LOT of roosters together over the years. I've had some bloody combs and a couple of boys who spent a good bit of time hiding under the roosts while things got sorted, but nothing worse than that.