Couple of questions

[farmkat55]

I have 8 Buff Orps, 6 hens and 2 roos. Roos not on purpose, they were all supposed to be hens! Anyway, they are 15 wks old and I wonder if the roos are gonna have issues with each other...what age would that happen? My main guy that I knew was a roo first is a sweet friendly guy. Comes to me and is the leader it seems of the bunch. They follow him a lot and he is the first out of the coop or gate. I actually love this guy, he is so laid back. Sits on the steps next to me!
The number 2 roo....not so much! He's not mean, but not friendly either. Squawks when I try to pick him up and won't eat out of my hand readily like the others. Will they for sure start to fight eventually. Will my favorite guy, Mr Rooster Cogburn, get mean or can a rooster stay friendly?

I also wonder if the roos will pair off in the bunch? Both of them frequently have a hen by their side, but I can't tell who is who yet since the hens look pretty much alike still! Mr Rooster Cogburn is the only one that crows so far, but he seemed to grow and get rooster-like faster.
Thanks!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Your flock is pretty small for 2 roosters. More than likely one will be dominant and one will be submissive as you are seeing. If you birds are confined things could get bad, if the submissive one can get away he could live on the fringes.

Generally you won't see any fighting until next spring if there will be any. There could be bullying.

Your hens will end up bareback even with just one rooster, so you will have some decisions to make. This time of year hormones are at their lowest. In early spring under increasing daylight you will probably start to see problems.

 

[Zoomie]

A rooster that is "friendly" is actually not such a great thing. This is more "dominance". As he matures he could well decide to start telling you where you can stand and where you can't.

Roosters that stay away generally have more respect and are easier for the human. Do you have small children? A dominant rooster can end up bullying little children.

I personally have had the best luck with roosters who were respectful of me and kept their distance. The ones who were "friendly" were actually attempting to get in my space, and this does not work out well as they mature. I guess I would recommend to only keep one rooster (this will be FAR easier on the hens) and I would keep the one that stays away from you.

 

[kesrchicky16]

I have 2 young roos. Just expanded my flock to 22 females so there isn't problems. 6 hens is the recommended for 1 roo in a breeding pen. My reccomendation is get rid of one unless you are prepared to quadruple your flock. I had 12 girls and was starting to notice problems.

 

[aart]

A rooster that is "friendly" is actually not such a great thing. This is more "dominance". As he matures he could well decide to start telling you where you can stand and where you can't.

Exactly!


The 'rooster' to hen ratio of 1:10 that is often cited is primarily for fertility efficiency in commercial breeding facilities.
It doesn't mean that if a cockbird has 10 hens that he won't abuse or over mate them.
Many breeders keep pairs, trios, quads, etc
It all depends on the temperaments of the cock and hens and sometimes housing provided.

 

[andreanar]

Its hard to say whether a cockerel will turn mean. You never know. The sub cock will usually not crow too much and will have to sneak to mate with the girls.. As the top cock, Mr Cogburn is the only one to have those rights! You def need to get more girls if youre going to keep a roo tho.

 

[rebrascora]

Added to what aart said above, young adolescent roosters that grow up in a flock without older birds to put them in their place are more likely to become problematic. Think adolescent boys with no parents to teach them right from wrong and hormones raging. Pullets reach sexual maturity later than cockerels, so the boys will be wanting to mate with the pullets before they are ready. Young cockerels are also usually competitive, so the pullet that is slowest to get out of their way, may get mated repeatedly by one after the other. It can all get rather unpleasant quite quickly. If you want to keep both boys, I would look at making them their own bachelor pad so the pullets have peace to develop and get through the stress and confusion of dealing with their own hormones at point of lay without being harassed by two young studs. I have found that leaving adolescent cockerels in the flock makes it a lot easier to decide to cull them and have them for dinner..... their temperament and merciless behaviour towards the pullets does not endear them to a flock owner.

Yes there are some nice cockerels but if you spend any time with the flock, you will see that much of the time they are not nice to the girls. Things will probably change in the next few weeks if they are 15 weeks now. You will start to hear pullets screaming as they start trying to mate them. Keep an eye open for injuries.... combs get torn and sometimes pullets get scalped and gashes under the wings are not uncommon as well as bare backs and necks.
I would definitely be more worried for your pullets than fighting between the two lads.

As an example of how quickly things change, this is just one post of many from people who are shocked by their adolescent rooster's behaviour
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/5-months-old.1198452/

Good luck with them and I hope I'm wrong and your guys both turn out to be gentlemen.

Regards

Barbara

 

[farmkat55]

Well, I think it would be better to just rehome the two boys. Don't think that will be easy, though. The less dominant one (to the other rooster I mean), Bentley, appeared to try to peck at me when I was guiding him back into the coop one evening...he went in and then turned around and kind of pecked in the air at me...ever so discreetly but I know what I saw! He's always seemed irritated at me, not indifferent, actually has an attitude. Never friendly and always indignant when I tried to touch him. Mr Cogburn, on the other hand, is not overly friendly but will come when called and will follow much better. I can pick him up with little fuss, but I just don't want issues later. I don't want him to try to breed the girls to death...had a drake that tried that to his girlfriend! I love his crowing and he's beautiful but I only have 6 pullets and it's too late in the year to get more and have time to go through all the settling down before winter is here and they will be inside more. Kind of sad that they change so much so that keeping as a pet is hard. Hubby has shoulder surgery in Nov so I don't need more on my plate right now.

 

[Petra Pancake]

Regarding rooster to hen ration - I've had a quite active rooster with 6 hens and there were no signs of overmating. No bare backs, no injuries, and the hens seemed to be okay with him. I've also kept a breeding pair of Bantams, just one rooster and one hen, in a separate aviary - the hen was fine, again, no injuries. And that roo was super polite - would always let the hen eat first and point out tasty food for her. They always slept cuddled together. I think it's a lot to do with chicken personalities. Small numbers can and did work for me, but there's no one size fits all.

 

[rebrascora]

Yes, I too have a single hen and cock bird together with no problem but firstly they are a bantam breed that are known for being gentle and more importantly, they are adult birds that were brought up with an adult hen that taught him manners (adolescent males with their first flush of hormones are usually merciless when it comes to mating and young pullets of the same age are not ready to breed and desperately try to get away rather than submitting and squatting, so injuries occur), but I agree that temperament definitely can make a difference. It's just difficult to know how much difference it will make when those hormones kick in and having two cockerels together means that they will often competitively and repeatedly mate the same pullet.
If you can find a home for one, you may manage fine with keeping one but it's a good idea to have a time out cage for him if he gets too much for them.