Can two roosters live together?

[BlueBantam Farms]

I’m hoping that we can have the dominant Orpington, and the shy little Splash 2nd in command. We can’t build a new coop are anything for cycling roosters currently

 

[589205]

I have about 4-5 baby roosters, all in the same brood, and I would like to keep 2 of them. They are usually tame breeds, and I have 10 hens. Could 2 friendly roos work with this amount of hens? The breeds I want to keep are Lavender Orpington and a shy, small Silverrudd splash

You can split the hens between your 2 keeper Roos but they will each need to have their own separate pens.

 

[TropicalBabies]

IMO- I have found that they work until they don't. The nice thing about keeping multi cockerels is choice. Keeping the better and rehoming the unchosen. Also be prepared to separate the 1 or 2 when needed. I find dog crates awesome for those timed outs due to hormones etc. Right now, I have 3 that I am keeping, 1 main guy and 2 in bachelor coop also, 3 (soon to be more) that I will be rehoming. It is a juggle so be prepared to be on your toes. Start taking photos and putting up adds to get your boys rehomed as soon as you know you are not keeping. There are some awesome homes to be had, you just have to work at it. BUT, there is nothing like watching your boy go to a good person and a flock of his own. Handle them and keep them friendly for their best chances. Nothing like watching your boy walk off or meet a flock of his very own... it is seriously like the best thing ever... better than ice cream! I keep mine caged if needed till their person finds them if they overstep in the flock.
*** The ONLY roos who get saucy with me are my young hormonal ones and then I just pick up and go look for bugs or give a treat. Change his headspace. If my main guy were to ever get saucy, he would be demoted. If he were bad to my girls he would have to go.

Best of luck to you on your new adventure!!! They are beautiful and stunning creatures and I can not imagine chicken keeping w/o them.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Isn't it interesting that some people tell you not no way, not no how, yet others are telling you that they do it without any big problems. What that means is that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. We all have different experiences.

If you want to try it my suggestion is to go by what you see. Trust your eyes and judgment. If it works you are golden, but have a Plan B so you can immediately isolate one if you need to. A dog crate or separate shelter can be really handy anyway, even if you have a flock of all hens. You never know when you might have to take care of an injured chicken.

 

[Ferrit47]

I have always unstood its best to keep Roosters apart from each other as they will fight as one wants to be incharge of his Flock of Hens.

 

[poultryprofessor]

It all depends on the birds and your setup.

I had a Rhode Island Red Bantam trio and a Dark Brahma Bantam trio that lived together in a relatively small coop. They were raised together and they all got along fine even into sexual maturity. Surprisingly, we even got purebred chicks from them when one of the hens went broody and the whole little flock took care of the chicks together. The only reason they aren't still together is because the RIR Bantam cock was human aggressive, so we sold the whole breed on.

I also have a flock of Seramas (2 cocks, 2 hens) that live together with no issue.

On the other hand, I had a bachelor flock of 9 Black Jersey Giant cockerels all raised together in a 60-sq-ft pen. At about 5 months of age, they started brawling with each other despite being housed separately from our hens/pullets. We reduced their numbers by about half and peace was restored. The 5 remaining brothers do just fine together in the same space.


It can work, or it can be a disaster. I would make sure that you have a plan B for your extra male(s). Have a small pen or even just a dog crate in your garage that you can relocate one to in case you have problems. As mentioned by others, this is a god idea even in a flock of just hens. You never know when you'll have a bird that needs some alone time due to an injury or illness.

 

[589205]

Isn't it interesting that some people tell you not no way, not no how, yet others are telling you that they do it without any big problems. What that means is that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. We all have different experiences.

If you want to try it my suggestion is to go by what you see. Trust your eyes and judgment. If it works you are golden, but have a Plan B so you can immediately isolate one if you need to. A dog crate or separate shelter can be really handy anyway, even if you have a flock of all hens. You never know when you might have to take care of an injured chicken.

Ditto, @Ridgerunner

 

[BlueBantam Farms]

IMO- I have found that they work until they don't. The nice thing about keeping multi cockerels is choice. Keeping the better and rehoming the unchosen. Also be prepared to separate the 1 or 2 when needed. I find dog crates awesome for those timed outs due to hormones etc. Right now, I have 3 that I am keeping, 1 main guy and 2 in bachelor coop also, 3 (soon to be more) that I will be rehoming. It is a juggle so be prepared to be on your toes. Start taking photos and putting up adds to get your boys rehomed as soon as you know you are not keeping. There are some awesome homes to be had, you just have to work at it. BUT, there is nothing like watching your boy go to a good person and a flock of his own. Handle them and keep them friendly for their best chances. Nothing like watching your boy walk off or meet a flock of his very own... it is seriously like the best thing ever... better than ice cream! I keep mine caged if needed till their person finds them if they overstep in the flock.
*** The ONLY roos who get saucy with me are my young hormonal ones and then I just pick up and go look for bugs or give a treat. Change his headspace. If my main guy were to ever get saucy, he would be demoted. If he were bad to my girls he would have to go.

Best of luck to you on your new adventure!!! They are beautiful and stunning creatures and I can not imagine chicken keeping w/o them.

Aww, thank you! These two boys are the ones I wanna keep. Hopefully that can get along, the Lavender Orpington is currently the friendliest of all my chickens (hen and Roo), and the Splash is shy and timid. The other 3 I have fight sometimes, but these 2 never have. Hoping for the best!

Isn't it interesting that some people tell you not no way, not no how, yet others are telling you that they do it without any big problems. What that means is that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. We all have different experiences.

If you want to try it my suggestion is to go by what you see. Trust your eyes and judgment. If it works you are golden, but have a Plan B so you can immediately isolate one if you need to. A dog crate or separate shelter can be really handy anyway, even if you have a flock of all hens. You never know when you might have to take care of an injured chicken.

Yeah. I used to have 2 extremely aggressive bantams who would fight each other, so I put the fight starter in a kennel. Gave him away. The other didn’t cause trouble by them selves at least. Gave him away though cuz we had a bigger roo

 

[TropicalBabies]

@BlueBantam Farms -Lavender Orpington yep, I'd keep him too! I hope he is a great one for you!
I had a series of loud hyper roosters, a sweet but probably starved to death because he gave it all to the gals rooster and a mean to my girls rooster till I finally got Spider and his brother. I loved his brother Earl more but Spider has a kind hand, is firm, organized, brave and very handsome w/ the bloodlines I though would shine. So Earl got a new, good home.

I decided to breed the Brahma rainbow last year because of the mail. It is extra work but we are making it happen in my little space. Yes multiple roos, give them space and be patient because it is a little crazy. Time is a wonderful thing, Spring... not so much lol.