Bantam Rooster a Threat?

[Hayduke27]

Hi all! I just determined yesterday that my little, tiny golden seabright is a rooster. I have a flock of 13 chickens, only 2 are bantams, and this rooster is the smallest chicken in the flock, by far! He's barely the size of a quail. This being said, he is also the most aggressive, and is not afraid to remind the other chickens who is boss.

Having said all of this, I have another rooster, a Brown Leghorn. He's a big boy, very peaceful thus far, and is my "good rooster". He watches out for the ladies. The seabright and the leghorn have been raised together, and so far everybody gets along quite nicely. However, I have read enough to know that as roosters com of age they can become more aggressive and troublesome.

My question is this: In a flock of 13 chickens, is it going to be a problem having these two roosters, even though they were raised together? I can't imagine the seabright could ever hold a candle to the big leghorn when it comes to dominance issues. Even though my little seabright is one tough egg, I don't want anybody getting beat up.

 

[jak2002003]

I doubt it will be a problem. The size difference will help too.

I have 8 hens and 3 roosters at the moment. They are all happy together.

My flock is constantly getting bigger - then smaller (as I sell the young adults). I even add new hens and roosters sometimes, and there is rarely any problems.

The trick is to give them plenty of space - mine fee range every day all day.

I would not advise to have so many roosters if they are only in a coop and run setup, as they can not get away from each other if a fight starts up.

 

[Mybabychicks]

Well the roosters are always after the hens and it sounds like you have enough hens to go around I think that once all the roosters can show where they stand they'll be fine im only thirteen but I have alot of experience so you can trust my opinion

 

[Hayduke27]

They have a big coop with plenty of roost space, and their run is very large and includes a roosting/flying/play area, a scratching/compost area, a feeding area, and the "dust bath". They are happy chickens, and I think as long as the sebright is nice, everybody else will do fine!

 

[donrae]

You'll just have to keep any eye out and see how things go. That's really a lot of rooster for the number of hens, so watch for bare backs, stress or behavioral issues that indicate overmating.

Animals don't think size matters near as much as humans! I think at some point your roosters will go at it and try to figure out who is really boss. How extensive that gets no one can predict. I'd think you can try it and see how it goes, keeping in mind you may need to pull a rooster out of there at some point.

 

[Hayduke27]

Yes indeed, I have been and will continue to keep a close eye on things. I have no problem making chicken soup for the general well being of the group!

 

[shmccarthy]

From my personal experience, with the same issue it grew to be a problem for me. I had 4 bantams and 6 EEs. One EE was a rooster and 3 bantams were roosters as well. I watched them very carefully and they got along great, for a while. My golden Sebright rooster became extremely agressive towards the EE rooster and ended up being the alpha rooster. He was also very human agressive and we tried a lot of things and ended up giving him to a farm without any roosters. My Mille fleur rooster was the next to show aggression and he also went to a farm with no other roosters. All of them were raised together and were very docile up until they got about 10 months old and hormones kicked in and 2/3 were rehomed. My EE rooster was the only one I ended up keeping because he to this day is the only one that isn't agressive.

 

[Hayduke27]

So my latest update is this: Poopsie (my dinky little sebright rooster, still just 1/4 the size of the other chickens) just started crowing, and is a little sparkplug, as always. He still picks on the brahmas (the most passive, peaceful chickens in the world), and usually has to be corrected by the big rooster. The big rooster doesn't really pay Poopsie any mind until he starts picking on the hens. Then the big rooster kicks into good rooster mode, and breaks things up, calms everyone down.

As of 2 days ago, my cuckoo marans have decided that enough is enough, and they chase Poopsie around, asserting their dominance every chance they get. If Poopsie ever wants to be alpha chicken, he's going to have to get through those two hens before he can even challenge the big rooster.

 

[julie0477]

Glad you guys posted this stuff. I bought out the bantam babies at rural king this year because I was so smitten with how little and cute they were. I ended up with 2 sebright roosters that started crowing at nine and ten weeks. ha Who does that? Not sure about the silkies yet. They are still pretty young. Anyway, I was wondering if this would end up being a problem. I have a buff brahma rooster that is currently king. He's so passive I am not sure how he'd handle a little guy trying to take his post. I think I'll go ahead and rehome at least one of them in hopes of keeping peace (they do free range most of the time though).

They are still pretty funny and cute at this age. Its funny when I googled this breed I found nothing about their aggressive behavior until I started reading BYC posts by people that actually own them.

 

[Hayduke27]

So this little Sebright continues to keep me on my toes. He is by far the most noisy rooster I have ever come across. He has a little pterodactyl scream, and he does it all day long. In the past week or so the roosters have started going after the hens, and with the, my sebright has also chased a couple of people. He challenged me one day, and I scared the tar out of him. He's been a bit better since, but definitely a handful. Who would have thought such a little bird could be the biggest personality in the flock?