can I house 2 roosters in the same pen ?

[norahsmommy]

In the spring we are ordering 25 straight run chickens from mcmurray. We are going to get a variety of heavy dual purpose birds. Hubby wants the roos for meat when they are big enough but I though we should keep 1 or 2 for mating so we don't have to buy chicks in the future. I have a bit of a thing about eating fertilized eggs, just weird I guess, so I was thinking we should keep 1or 2 roos in a bachelor pad. A fenced area in the coop seperate from the girls with its own pop door into the smaller bachelor sized run with a compost pile in the back. would 1 roo get lonely all by himself in his run, would he need another roo for company or would that be a bad idea. Would they fight? Please share your tips on this situation.

 

[moduckman]

Right now I have over a dozen roosters and 30-some hens together. Sure they'll fight some but they have a pecking order and get along for the most part. If one rooster does get injured for some reason, get him out.They will likely kill a weak, injured rooster. I seperate mine in March.

 

[sewincircle]

The safe amount is 1 roo per dozen eggs. That is about right. Hope that helps.

 

[morelcabin]

In your case I would keep at least two ros in the bachelor pad...that way if one gets sick and dies you have another to fall back on. Roosters that are raised together will usually not fight, in my experience. Adding a new rooster to an existing coop that already has a rooster is asking for some trouble unless you seperate roos from hens for a while and then reintroduce Both of them back to the flock at the same time after a week or so. That's what works for me anyway

 

[msgenie516]

Hi,

I have two Polish roos that I keep together but separate from all the other chickens. They do not fight but I may just be lucky or it could be that they have no hens to fight over. Polish roos have a reputation for being more docile than some others. Hope this helps! Genie

 

[prariechiken]

Depends on the breed and the space you have for them. You may not have to worry about them as much as the hens. They will try to compete for ladies and will group breed a hen. That is once she is topped by one the other will have to show him up by topping her too. This is heck on the backs of the girls that are in with them.

 

[luvmyturkens]

We have two roos, an Americana and a Silkie. They've been together since we got them and have never really fought. The silkie is the dominant roo and chases the other one around on occasion, but they've never really had a fight.

 

[dacjohns]

I have 4 roosters. (31 chickens total) My setup is two coops with attached runs, 2 roosters in each one. In one I have a big rooster and a little rooster. Khaki, the little one is fast enough and agile enough to avoid Big Rooster. Khaki can get up in the rafters where Big Rooster can't go. The other coop has Junior (looks a lot like Big Rooster) and Pretty Boy. They pretty much get along with each other with Pretty Boy being sub-dominate.

When I let all the birds out the two groups mix but the roosters and most of the hens go back to their respective coops at night. It is quite entertaining to see the sub-dominate males court and try to mate with the hens before the dominate rooster chase them away.

So far, so good but I am prepared to cull if necessary.


If you collect the eggs daily and refrigerate them you can hardly tell that they are fertilized. I see no need to keep the roosters and hens separated.

 

[chickenbottom]

what about EE roosters if they grow up together are they nice because i got 9 with my order from ideal and one died and i dont want to part with another one so idk what do you think?

 

[Mahonri]

I have one roo now in with 24 hens. He is the boss but he doesn't mate... of course it's only been since Friday but we are thinking we will have to let him go and get another one.

Getting ready to get some more breeding pens set up... my wife is getting worried now.